JOHN  T.  RING 
MEMORIAL 

This  book  is  a  part  of  the  library  of 
PROFESSOR 

Thornton  Shirley  Graves 

Professor  of  English  in 
Trinity  College 
1913-1921 

which  was  purchased  for  the 
Duke  University  Library 
by  the  Class  of  1916 
as  a  memorial  to  their  classmate 

JOHN  T.  RING 

who  was  killed  in  action  in  France  on 
July  19,  1918 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/leadingfactsofen01mont_0 


KING  EDWARD  VII 


Ube  Xeabing  ffacts  of  Ibistorp  Series 


THE  LEADING  FACTS  OF 
ENGLISH  HISTORY 


BY 

D.  H.  MONTGOMERY 


Nothing  in  the  past  is  dead  to  the  man  who  would  learn  how  the  present 
came  to  be  what  it  is.”  —  Stubbs  :  Constitutional  History  of  England. 


BOSTON,  U.S.A. 

GINN  &  COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS 

Cbe  atbcnffum  JJreeB 

1902 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  HISTORY  SERIES 

By  D.  H.  MONTGOMERY 

BEGINNER’S  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

For  introduction,  60  cents 

THE  LEADING  FACTS  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

For  introduction,  $1.00 

THE  STUDENT’S  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

For  introduction,  $1.40 

THE  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 

For  introduction,  $1.12 

THE  LEADING  FACTS  OF  FRENCH  HISTORY 

For  introduction,  $1.12 


Copyright,  1887,  1889,  1898,  1901,  by  D.  H.  Montgomery 


I  dedicate  this  book 
to  my  friend  'Jl-  3-  JR*.  who  generously 
gave  time,  labor,  and  valuable 
suggestions  towards  its 
preparation  for 
the  press 


PREFACE 


Most  of  the  materials  for  this  book  were  gathered  by  the 
writer  during  several  years’  residence  in  England. 

The  attempt  is  here  made  to  present  them  in  a  manner  that 
shall  illustrate  the  great  law  of  national  growth,  in  the  light 
thrown  upon  it  by  the  foremost  English  historians. 

The  authorities  for  the  different  periods  will  be  found  in  the 
classified  List  of  Books  in  the  Appendix ;  but  the  author  desires 
to  particularly  acknowledge  his  indebtedness  to  the  works  of 
Gardiner,  Guest,  and  Green,  and  to  the  excellent  constitutional 
histories  of  Taswell-Langmead  and  Ransome. 

The  author’s  hearty  thanks  are  due  to  G.  Mercer  Adam,  Esq., 
of  Toronto,  Canada ;  the  late  Prof.  W.  F.  Allen,  of  The  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Wisconsin ;  Prof.  P.  V.  N.  Myers,  recently  Professor 
of  History  and  Political  Economy  in  the  University  of  Cincinnati ; 
Prof.  George  W.  Knight,  of  Ohio  State  University ;  and  to  Miss 
M.  A.  Parsons,  teacher  of  history  in  the  High  School,  Winchester, 
Mass.,  for  the  important  aid  which  they  have  kindly  rendered. 

DAVID  H.  MONTGOMERY. 


v 


211248 


CONTENTS 


viii 

MAPS 

MAP  PAGE 

I.  Britain  before  its  Separation  from  the  Continent  .  .  facing  4 

II.  Roman  Britain .  “  22 

III.  The  Continental  Homes  of  the  English  with  their 

Successive  Invasions  of  Britain .  “  34 

IV.  The  English  Settlements  and  Kingdoms  (England  in 

626) .  “  38 

V.  Danish  England  —  England  after  the  Treaty  of  Wed- 

more,  878 .  “  40 

VI.  England  in  1066,  showing  the  Four  Great  Earldoms  of 

Northumbria,  Mercia,  East  Anglia,  and  Wessex  .  “  42 

VII.  Plan  of  a  Manor .  “  80 

VIII.  The  Dominions  of  the  Angevins,  or  Plantagenets  .  .  “  88 

IX.  Scotland,  illustrating  English  Wars .  “  122 

X.  The  English  Possessions  in  France,  1360  (in  colors)  .  “  130 

XI.  England  and  Wales  (1066-1485),  showing  the  Battle¬ 
fields  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses .  “  174 

XII.  The  World  at  the  Accession  of  Henry  VII,  showing 

Voyages  of  Discovery  by  the  Cabots  and  Others  “  186 

XIII.  First  English  Settlements  in  America,  and  Drake’s 

Voyage  around  the  Globe .  “  218 

XIV.  The  Homes  of  the  Pilgrims  in  England  and  Holland 

(double  page) . '.  .  “  234 

XV.  England  during  the  Great  Civil  War  of  the  17th 

Century .  “  248 

XVI.  Europe,  illustrating  the  Campaigns  of  Marlborough  .  “  298 

XVII.  Clive’s  Conquests  in  India .  “  324 

XVIII.  The  British  Isles .  “  346 

XIX.  The  British  Empire  in  1837 .  “  400 

XX.  The  British  Empire  in  1901 .  “  402 

XXI.  The  British  in  Africa .  “  406 

XXII.  County  Map  of  England  (in  colors) .  “  416 


CONTENTS 


IX 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

King  Edward  VII.  Frontispiece. 

Two  of  the  Columns  at  Stonehenge . facing  to 

“The  White  Walls  of  England”  —  The  Shakespeare  Cliff, 

Dover .  “  20 

Roman  Wall,  Northumberland  1 

.  “  28 

Roman  Road  over  Salisbury  Plain  1 

White  Horse  Hill,  Berkshire .  “  44 

Part  of  the  Bayeux  Tapestry .  “  62 

The  Tower  of  London .  “  92 

The  Battle  of  Crecy .  “  128 

The  Tomb  of  the  Black  Prince  in  Canterbury  Cathedral  .  .  “  132 

The  Caxton  Memorial  Window  in  St.  Margaret’s  Church, 

London . : .  “  168 

Henry  VII’s  Chapel,  Westminster  Abbey .  .  “  184 

Stratford  on  Avon .  “  216 

The  Spanish  Armada .  “  220 

Windsor  Castle .  “  246 

Oliver  Cromwell  resolving  to  refuse  the  Crown .  “  250 

St.  Paul’s  Cathedral .  “  264 

Hogarth’s  Election  Scenes  —  Bribing  a  Voter .  “  312 

The  Nelson  Monument,  Trafalgar  Square,  London  ....  “  334 

“  Your  Majesty”  —  Announcement  to  the  Princess  Victoria  of 

her  Accession  to  the, Crown,  June  20,  1837 .  “  368 

The  Houses  of  Parliament .  “  372 

Gladstone  introducing  the  Home  Rule  Bill  in  the  House  of 

Commons .  “  404 

Medallion  of  Queen  Victoria  (1837-1901) .  “  410 


V  \ 


THE  LEADING  FACTS  OF 
ENGLISH  HISTORY 


SECTION  1 

“  This  fortress  built  by  Nature  for  herself 
Against  infection  and  the  hand  of  war; 

This  happy  breed  of  men,  this  little  world, 

This  precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea, 

Which  serves  it  in  the  office  of  a  wall, 

Or  as  a  moat  defensive  to  a  house, 

Against  the  envy  of  less  happier  lands  ; 

This  blessed  plot,  this  earth,  this  realm,  this  England.” 

Shakespeare,  Richard  II. 


BRITAIN  BEFORE  WRITTEN  HISTORY  BEGINS 

THE  COUNTRY 

1.  Britain  once  a  Part  of  the  Continent - The  island  of  Great 

Britain  has  not  always  had  its  present  form.  Though  separated 
from  Europe  now  by  the  English  Channel  and  the  North  Sea,  yet 
there  is  abundant  geological  evidence  that  it  was  once  a  part  of 
the  continent. 

2.  Proofs. — The  chalk  cliffs  of  Dover  are  really  a  continua¬ 
tion  of  the  chalk  of  Calais,  on  the  coast  of  France.  The  strait 
dividing  them,  which  is  nowhere  more  than  thirty  fathoms 
deep,1  is  simply  the  result  of  a  slight  and  comparatively  recent 

1  The  width  of  the  Strait  of  Dover  at  its  narrowest  point  is  twenty-one  miles. 
The  bottom  is  a  continuous  ridge  of  chalk.  If  St.  Paul’s  Cathedral  were  placed  in 
the  strait,  midway  between  England  and  France,  more  than  half- of  the  building 
would  be  above  the  surface  of  the  water. 


I 


2  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  ^ISTORY 

depression  in  that  chalk.  The  waters  of  the  North  Sea  are  also 
shallow,  and  in  dredging,  great  quantities  of  the  same  fossil 
remains  of  land  animals  are  brought  up  which  are  found  buried 
in  the  soil  of  England,  Belgium,  and  France.  It  would  seem, 
therefore,  that  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  bed 
of  this  sea,  where  these  creatures  made  their  homes,  must  once 
have  been  on  a  level  with  the  countries  whose  shores  it  now 
washes. 

3.  Appearance  of  the  Country.  —  What  we  know  to-day  as 
England,  was  at  that  time  a  western  projection  of  the  continent, 
wild,  desolate,  and  without  a  name.1  The  high  hill  ranges  show 
unmistakable  marks  of  the  glaciers  which  once  ploughed  down  their 
sides,  and  penetrated  far  into  the  valleys,  as  they  still  continue  to 
do  among  the  Alps. 

4.  The  Climate.  — The  climate  then  was  probably  like  that  of 
Greenland  now.  Europe  was  but  just  emerging,  if,  indeed,  it  had 
begun  to  finally  emerge,  from  that  long  period  during  w-hich  the 
upper  part  of  the  northern  hemisphere  was  buried  under  a  vast 
field  of  ice  and  snow. 

5.  Trees  and  Animals.  — The  trees  and  animals  corresponded 
to  the  climate  and  the  country.  Forests  of  fir,  pine,  and  stunted 
oak,  such  as  are  now  found  in  latitudes  much  farther  north,  cov¬ 
ered  the  low  lands  and  the  lesser  hills.  Through  these  roamed 
the  reindeer,  the  mammoth,  the  wdld  horse,  the  bison  or  “buf¬ 
falo,”  and  the  cave-bear. 

MAN  — THE  ROUGH-STONE  AGE 

6.  His  Condition.  —  Man  seems  to  have  taken  up  his  abode  in 
Britain  before  it  w'as  severed  from  the  mainland.  His  condition 
was  that  of  the  lowest  and  most  brutal  savage.  He  probably 
stood  apart,  even  from  his  fellow-men,  in  selfish  isolation  ;  if  so, 
he  was  bound  to  no  tribe,  acknowledged  no  chief,  obeyed  no  law-. 
All  his  interests  were  centred  in  himself  and  in  the  little  group 
which  constituted  his  family. 


1  See  Map  No.  1,  facing  page  4. 


BRITAIN  BEFORE  WRITTEN  HISTORY  BEGINS 


3 


7.  How  he  lived.  —  His  house  was  the  first  empty  cave  he 
found,  or  a  rude  rock-shelter  made  by  piling  up  stones  in  some 
partially  protected  place.  Here  he  dwelt  during  the  winter. 
In  summer,  when  his  wandering  life  began,  he  built  himself  a 
camping  place  of  branches  and  bark,  under  the  shelter  of  an 
overhanging  cliff  by  the  sea,  or  close  to  the  bank  of  a  river. 

He  had  no  tools.  When  he  wanted  a  fire  he  struck  a  bit  of 
flint  against  a  lump  of  iron  ore,  or  made  a  flame  by  rubbing  two 
dry  sticks  rapidly  together. 

His  only  weapon  was  a  club  or  a  stone.  As  he  did  not  dare 
encounter  the  larger  and  fiercer  animals,  he  rarely  ventured  into 
the  depths  of  the  forests,  but  subsisted  on  the  shellfish  he  picked 
up  along  the  shore,  or  on  any  chance  game  he  might  have  the 
good  fortune  to  kill,  to  which,  as  a  relish,  he  added  berries  or 
pounded  roots. 

8.  His  First  Tools  and  Weapons.  —  In  process  of  time  he 
learned  to  make  rough  tools  and  weapons  from  pieces  of  flint, 
which  he  chipped  to  an  edge  by  striking  them  together.  When 
he  had  thus  succeeded  in  shaping  for  himself  a  spear-point,  or  had 
discovered  how  to  make  a  bow  and  to  tip  the  arrows  with  a  sharp 
splinter  of  stone,  his  condition  changed.  He  now  felt  that  he 
was  a  match  for  the  beasts  he  had  fled  from  before. 

Thus  armed,  he  slew  the  reindeer  and  the  bison,  used  their 
flesh  for  food,  their  skins  for  clothing,  while  he  made  thread  from 
their  sinews,  and  needles  and  other  implements  from  their  bones. 
He  had  advanced  from  his  first  helpless  state,  but  his  life 
continued  to  be  a  constant  battle  with  the  beasts  and  the 
elements. 

9.  His  Moral  and  Religious  Nature.  —  His  moral  nature  was 
on  a  level  with  his  intellect.  No  questions  of  conscience  dis¬ 
turbed  him.  In  every  case  of  dispute  might  made  right. 

His  religion  was  the  terror  inspired  by  the  forces  and  convul¬ 
sions  of  nature,  and  the  dangers  to  which  he  was  constantly 
exposed.  Such,  we  have  every  reason  to  believe,  was  the  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  Cave-Man  who  first  inhabited  Britain  and  the  other 
countries  of  Europe  and  the  East. 


4 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


10.  Duration  of  the  Rough-Stone  Age.  — The  period  in  which 
he  lived  is  called  the  Old  or  Rough-Stone  Age,  a  name  derived 
from  the  implements  then  in  use. 

When  that  age  began,  or  when  it  came  to  a  close,  are  questions 
which  at  present  cannot  be  answered.  But  we  may  measure  the 
time  which  has  elapsed  since  man  appeared  in  Britain  by  the 
changes  which  have  taken  place  in  the  country. 

We  know  that  sluggish  streams  like  the  Lower  or  Bristol  Avon, 
with  w'hose  channel  the  lapse  of  many  centuries  has  made  scarcely 
any  material  difference,  have,  little  by  little,  cut  their  way  down 
through  beds  of  gravel  or  rock  till  they  have  scooped  out  valleys 
sometimes  a  hundred  feet  deep. 

We  know  also  that  the  climate  is  now  wholly  unlike  what  it 
once  wras,  and  that  the  animals  of  that  far-off  period  have  either 
disappeared  from  the  globe  or  are  found  only  in  distant  regions. 

The  men  wrho  were  contemporary  with  them  have  vanished  in 
like  manner.  But  that  they  were  contemporary  we  may  feel  sure 
from  two  well-established  grounds  of  evidence. 

1 1 .  Remains  of  the  Rough-Stone  Age.  —  First,  their  flint  knives 
and  arrows  are  found  in  the  caves,  mingled  with  ashes  and  with 
the  bones  of  the  animals  on  which  they  feasted ;  these  bones 
having  been  invariably  split  in  order  that  they  might  suck  out  the 
marrow.1  Next,  we  have  the  drawings  they  made  of  those  very 
creatures  scratched  on  a  tusk  or  on  a  smooth  piece  of  slate  with 
a  bit  of  sharp-pointed  quartz  or  rock-crystal.2 

Nearly  everything  else  has  perished;  even  their  burial  places, 
if  they  had  any,  have  been  swept  away  by  the  destroying  action 
of  time.  Yet  these  memorials  have  come  dowrn  to  us,  so  many 
fragments  of  imperishable  history,  made  by  that  primeval  race 
who  possessed  no  other  means  of  recording  the  fact  of  their 
existence  and  their  work. 

1  Very  few  remains  of  the  Cave-Men  themselves  have  yet  been  found,  and  these 
with  the  most  trifling  exceptions  have  been  discovered  on  the  continent,  especially 
in  France  and  Switzerland.  The  first  rough-stone  implement  found  in  England  was 
dug  up  in  Gray’s  Inn  Road,  London,  in  1690.  It  is  of  flint,  and  in  shape  and  size 
resembles  a  very  large  pear.  It  forms  the  nucleus  of  a  collection  in  the  British  Museum. 

2  These  drawings  have  been  found  in  considerable  number  on  the  continent. 


ROCKALL 


1320 


^ 2000 


9TRUTHER9  A 


BRITAIN  BEFORE  ITS  SEPARATION  FROM  THE  CONTINENT  OF  EUROPE 

The  dark  lines  represent  land,  now  submerged. 

The  dotted  area,  that  occupied  by  animals. 

The  white  land  area,  portions  once  covered  by  glaciers. 

The  figures  show  the  present  depth  of  sea  in  fathoms. 

F.  (France),  T.  (Thames),  W.  (Wales),  S.  (Scotland),  I.  (Ireland). 

?,  doubtful  area,  but  probably  glacial. 


6 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


14.  Farming  and  Cattle-Raising.  —  Unlike  their  predecessors, 
this  second  race  did  not  depend  on  hunting  and  fishing  alone, 
but  were  herdsmen  and  farmers  as  well.  They  had  brought  from 
other  countries  such  cereals  as  wheat  and  barley,  and  such  domestic 
animals  as  the  ox,  sheep,  hog,  horse,  and  dog.  Around  their 
villages  they  cultivated  fields  of  grain,  while  in  the  adjacent  woods 
and  pastures  they  kept  herds  of  swine  and  cattle. 

15.  Arts. : — They  had  learned  the  art  of  pottery,  and  made 
dishes  and  other  useful  vessels  of  clay,  which  they  baked  in  the 
fire.  They  raised  flax  and  spun  and  wove  it  into  coarse,  substan¬ 
tial  cloth.  They  may  also  have  had  woollen  garments,  though 
no  remains  of  any  have  reached  us,  perhaps  because  they  are 
more  perishable  than  linen. 

They  were  men  of  small  stature,  with  dark  hair  and  complexion, 
and  it  is  supposed  that  they  are  represented  in  Great  Britain 
to-day  by  the  inhabitants  of  Southern  Wales. 

16.  Burial  of  the  Dead.  —  They  buried  their  dead  in  long 
mounds  or  barrows,  some  of  which  are  upward  of  three  hun¬ 
dred  feet  in  length.  These  barrows  were  often  made  by  setting 
up  large,  rough  slabs  of  stone  so  as  to  form  one  or  more  cham¬ 
bers  which  were  afterward  covered  with  earth.  In  some  parts  of 
England  these  burial  mounds  are  very  common,  and  in  Wiltshire, 
several  hundred  occur  within  the  limits  of  an  hour’s  walk. 

During  the  last  twenty  years  many  of  these  mounds  have  been 
opened  and  carefully  explored.  Not  only  the  remains  of  the 
builders  have  been  discovered  in  them,  but  with  them  their  tools 
and  weapons.  In  addition  to  these,  earthen  dishes  for  holding 
food  and  drink  have  been  found,  placed  there,  it  is  supposed,  to 
supply  the  wants  of  the  spirits  of  the  departed,  as  some  of  the 
American  Indians  still  do  in  their  interments. 

When  a  chief  or  great  man  died,  it  appears  to  have  been  the 
custom  of  the  tribe  to  hold  a  funeral  feast.  The  number  of  cleft 
human  skulls  dug  up  in  such  places  has  led  to  the  belief  that 
prisoners  of  war  may  have  been  sacrificed  and  their  flesh  eaten 
by  the  assembled  guests  in  honor  of  the  dead.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  there  are  excellent  grounds  for  supposing  that  these  tribes 


BRITAIN  BEFORE  WRITTEN  HISTORY  BEGINS  7 


were  constantly  at  war  with  each  other,  and  that  their  battles 
were  as  fierce  and  as  cruel  as  those  of  uncivilized  races  generally 

are  still. 

THE  BRONZE  AGE 

17.  The  Third  Race.  —  But  great  as  was  the  progress  which 
the  men  of  the  New  or  Polished-Stone  Age  had  made,  it  was 
destined  to  be  surpassed.  A  people  had  appeared  in  Europe, 
though  at  what  date  cannot  yet  be  determined,  who  had  discov¬ 
ered  how  to  melt  and  mingle  two  important  metals,  copper  and  tin. 

18.  Superiority  of  Bronze  to  Stone. — This  mixture,  called 
bronze,  had  this  great  advantage  :  a  stone  tool  or  weapon, 
though  hard,  is  brittle  ;  but  bronze  is  not  only  hard,  but  tough. 
Stone,  again,  cannot  be  ground  to  a  thin  cutting  edge,  whereas 
bronze  can. 

Here,  then,  was  a  new  departure.  Here  was  a  new  power. 
From  that  period  the  bronze  axe  and  the  bronze  sword,  wielded 
by  the  muscular  arms  of  a  third  and  stronger  race,  became  the 
symbols  of  a  period  appropriately  named  the  Age  of  Bronze. 

The  men  thus  equipped  invaded  Britain.  They  drove  back  or 
enslaved  the  possessors  of  the  soil.  They  conquered  the  island, 
settled  it,  and  held  it  as  their  own  until  the  Roman  soldiers, 
armed  with  swords  of  steel,  came  in  turn  to  conquer  them. 

19.  Who  the  Bronze-Men  were,  and  how  they  lived.  —  The 
Bronze-Men  may  be  regarded  as  offshoots  of  the  Celts,  a  large- 
limbed,  fair-haired,  fierce-eyed  people,  that  originated  in  Asia, 
and  overran  Central  and  Western  Europe.  Like  the  men  of  the 
Age  of  Polished  Stone,  they  lived  in  settlements  under  chiefs  and 
possessed  a  rude  sort  of  government.  Their  villages  were  built 
above  ground  and  consisted  of  circular  houses  somewhat  resem¬ 
bling  Indian  wigwams.  They  were  constructed  of  wood,  chinked 
in  with  clay,  having  pointed  roofs  covered  with  reeds,  with  an 
opening  to  let  out  the  smoke  and  let  in  the  light. 

Around  these  villages  the  inhabitants  dug  a  deep  ditch  for 
defence,  to  which  they  added  a  rampart  of  earth  surmounted  by  a 
palisade  of  stout  sticks,  or  by  felled  trees  piled  on  each  other. 


8 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


They  kept  sheep  and  cattle.  They  raised  grain,  which  they 
deposited  in  subterranean  storehouses  for  the  winter. 

They  not  only  possessed  all  the  arts  of  the  Stone-Men,  but,  in 
addition,  they  were  skilful  workers  in  gold,  of  which  they  made 
necklaces  and  bracelets.  They  also  manufactured  woollen  cloth 
of  various  textures  and  brilliant  colors. 

They  buried  their  dead  in  round  barrows  or  mounds,  making 
for  them  the  same  provision  that  the  Stone-Men  did.  Though 
divided  into  tribes  and  scattered  over  a  very  large  area,  yet  they 
all  spoke  the  same  language.  A  man  who  asked  for  bread  and 
cheese  in  Celtic  would  have  been  understood  anywhere  from  the 
borders  of  Scotland  to  the  southern  boundaries  of  France. 

20.  Greek  Account  of  the  Bronze-Men  of  Britain.  —  At  what 
time  the  Celts  came  into  Britain  is  not  known,  though  some 
writers  suppose  that  it  was  about  500  b.c.  However  that  may  be, 
we  learn  something  of  their  mode  of  life  two  centuries  later  from 
the  narrative  of  Pytheas,  a  learned  Greek  navigator  and  geographer 
who  made  a  voyage  to  Britain  at  that  time. 

He  says  he  saw  plenty  of  grain  growing,  and  that  the  farmers 
gathered  the  sheaves  at  harvest  into  large  barns.  There  they 
threshed  it  under  cover,  for  the  fine  weather  was  so  uncertain  in 
the  island  that  they  could  not  do  it  out  of  doors,  as  in  countries 
farther  south.  Here,  then,  we  have  proof  that  the  primitive 
Britons  saw  quite  as  little  of  the  sun  as  their  descendants  do  now. 
Another  discovery  made  by  Pytheas  was  that  the  farmers  of  that 
day  had  learned  to  make  beer  and  liked  it.  So  that  here,  again, 
the  primitive  Briton  was  in  no  way  behind  his  successors. 

21.  Early  Tin  Trade  of  Britain.  —  Of  their  skill  in  mining 
Pytheas  does  not  speak,  though  from  that  date,  and  perhaps 
many  centuries  earlier,  the  inhabitants  of  the  southern  part  of  the 
island  carried  on  a  brisk  trade  in  tin  ore  with  merchants  of  the 
Mediterranean. 

Tradition  tells  us  that  Hiram,  King  of  Tyre,  who  reigned  over 
the  Phoenicians,  a  people  particularly  skilful  in  making  bronze, 
and. who  aided  Solomon  in  building  the  Jewish  temple, ' obtained 
supplies  of  tin  from  the  British  Isles.  At  any  rate,  about  the 


BRITAIN  BEFORE  WRITTEN  HISTORY  BEGINS  9 


year  300  b.c.,  a  certain  Greek  writer  speaks  of  the  country  as 
then  well  known,  calling  it  Albion,  or  the  “  Land  of  the  White 
Cliffs.” 

22.  Introduction  of  Iron.  —  About  a  century  after  that  name 
was  given,  the  use  of  bronze  began  to  be  supplemented  to  some 
extent  by  the  introduction  of  iron.  Caesar  tells  us  that  rings  of  it 
were  employed  for  money.  The  tribes  in  the  north  of  the  island 
may  have  used  iron  money,  but  the  men  of  the  south  had  not  only 
gold  and  silver  coins  at  that  date,  but  what  is  more,  they  had 
learned  how  to  counterfeit  them. 

Such  were  the  inhabitants  the  Romans  found  when  they  invaded 
Britain  in  the  first  century  before  the  Christian  era.  Caesar 
looked  upon  these  people  as  barbarians ;  they  were  clad  in  skins, 
with  their  faces  stained  with  the  deep  blue  dye  of  the  woad 
plant,  but  they  proved  no  unworthy  foemen  even  for  his  veteran 
troops. 

23.  The  Religion  of  the  Primitive  Britons  ;  the  Druids.  —  The 

Britons  held  some  dim  faith  in  an  overruling  Power  and  in  a  life 
beyond  the  grave,  for  they  offered  human  sacrifices  to  the  one, 
and  buried  the  warrior’s  spear  with  him,  that  he  might  be  pro¬ 
vided  for  the  other.  Furthermore,  the  Britons  when  Caesar 
iimded  the  country  had  a  regularly  organized  priesthood,  the 
Druids,  who  appear  to  have  worshipped  the  heavenly  bodies. 

They  dwelt  in  the  depths  of  the  forests,  and  venerated  the  oak 
and  the  mistletoe.  There  in  the  gloom  and  secrecy  of  the  woods 
they  raised  their  altars  ;  there,  too,  they  offered  up  criminals  to  gain 
the  favor  of  their  gods.  The  Druids  acted  not  only  as  interpreters 
of  the  divine  will,  but  they  held  the  savage  passions  of  the  people 
in  check,  and  tamed  them  as  wild  beasts  are  tamed. 

Besides  this,  they  were  the  repositories  of  tradition,  custom,  and 
law.  They  were  also  prophets,  judges,  and  teachers.  Lucan,  the 
Roman  poet,  declared  he  envied  them  their  belief  in  the  inde¬ 
structibility  of  the  soul,  since  it  banished  that  greatest  of  all  fears, 
the  fear  of  death.  Caesar  tells  us  that  “  they  did  much  inquire, 
and  hand  down  to  the  youth  concerning  the  stars  and  their 
motions,  concerning  the  magnitude  of  the  earth,  concerning  the 


IO 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


nature  of  things,  and  the  might  and  power  of  the  immortal 
gods.”  1 

They  did  more  ;  for  they  not  only  transmitted  their  beliefs  and 
hopes  from  generation  to  generation,  but  they  seem  to  have  given 
them  architectural  power  and  permanence.  The  massive  stone 
columns  of  that  temple  open  to  the  sky,  the  ruins  of  which  are 
still  to  be  seen  on  Salisbury  Plain,  are  supposed  to  be  their  work. 
There,  on  one  of  those  fallen  blocks,  Carlyle  and  Emerson  sat  and 
discussed  the  great  questions  of  the  Druid  philosophy  when  they 
made  their  pilgrimage  to  Stonehenge2  more  than  sixty  years  ago. 

24.  What  we  owe  to  Primitive  or  Prehistoric  Man. — The 
Romans  always  spoke  of  these  people  as  barbarians.  But  we 
should  bear  in  mind  that  all  the  progress  which  civilization  has 
since  made  is  built  on  the  foundations  which  they  slowly  and 
painfully  laid  during  unknown  centuries  of  toil  and  strife. 

To  them  we  owe  the  taming  of  the  dog,  horse,  and  other 
domestic  animals,  the  first  working  of  metals,  the  beginning  of 
agriculture  and  mining,  and  the  establishment  of  many  salutary 
customs  which  help  to  bind  society  together  to-day. 

1  See  Ca-sar’s  Gallic  War,  Books  IV  and  V  (for  these  and  other  references,  see 
List  of  Books  in  Appendix). 

2  Stonehenge  (literally,  the  “  Hanging  Stones  ”)  :  this  is  generally  considered  to 
be  the  remains  of  a  Druid  temple.  It  is  situated  on  a  plain  near  Salisbury,  Wilt¬ 
shire,  in  the  south  of  England.  It  consists  of  a  number  of  immense  upright  stones 
arranged  in  two  circles,  an  outer  and  an  inner,  with  a  row  of  flat  stones  partly  con¬ 
necting  them  at  the  top.  The  temple  had  no  roof.  An  excellent  description  of  it 
may  be  found  in  R.  W.  Emerson’s  English  Traits. 


TWO  OF  THE  COLUMNS  AT  STONEHENGE 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  ENGLAND 


1 1 


SECTION  II 


“  Father  Neptune  one  day  to  Dame  Freedom  did  say, 

‘  If  ever  I  lived  upon  dry  land, 

The  spot  I  should  hit  on  would  be  little  Britain.’ 

Says  Freedom,  ‘  Why,  that ’s  my  own  island.’ 

O,  ’t  is  a  snug  little  island, 

A  right  little,  tight  little  island ! 

Search  the  world  round,  none  can  be  found 
So  happy  as  this  little  island.” 

T.  Dibdin. 

THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  ENGLAND  IN  RELATION  TO 
ITS  HISTORY 1 

25.  Geography  and  History.  —  As  material  surroundings 
strongly  influence  individual  life,  so  the  physical  features  —  situa¬ 
tion,  surface,  and  climate  —  of  a  country  have  a  marked  effect  on 
its  people  and  its  history. 

26.  The  Island  Form  ;  Race  Settlements  —  the  Romans:  — The 
insular  form  of  Britain  gave  it  a  certain  advantage  over  the  conti¬ 
nent  during  the  age  when  Rome  was  subjugating  the  barbarians 
of  Northern  and  Western  Europe.  As  the  Roman  invasions  of 
Britain  could  only  be  by  sea,  they  were  necessarily  on  a  compara¬ 
tively  small  scale. 

This  perhaps  is  one  reason  why  the  Romans  did  not  succeed  in 
establishing  their  language  and  laws  in  the  island.  They  con¬ 
quered  and  held  it  for  centuries,  but  they  never  destroyed  its 
individuality ;  they  never  Latinized  it  as  they  did  France  and 
Spain. 

1  As  this  section  necessarily  contains  references  to  events  in  the  later  periods  of 
English  history,  it  may  be  advantageously  reviewed  after  the  pupil  has  reached  a 
somewhat  advanced  stage  in  the  course. 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


I  2 


27.  The  Saxons.  —  In  like  manner,  when  the  power  of  Rome 
fell  and  the  northern  tribes  overran  and  took  possession  of  the 
Empire,  they  were  in  a  measure  shut  out  from  Britain.  Hence 
the  Jutes,  Saxons,  and  Angles  could  not  pour  down  upon  it  in 
countless  hordes,  but  only  by  successive  attacks. 

This  had  two  results  :  first,  the  native  Britons  were  driven  back 
only  by  degrees  —  thus  their  hope  and  courage  were  kept  alive 
and  transmitted ;  next,  the  conquerors  settling  gradually  in 
different  sections  built  up  independent  kingdoms. 

When  in  time  the  whole  country  came  under  one  sovereignty, 
the  kingdoms,  which  had  now  become  shires  or  counties,  retained 
through  their  chief  men  an  important  influence  in  the  govern¬ 
ment,  thus  preventing  the  royal  power  from  becoming  absolute. 

28.  The  Danes  and  Normans.  —  In  the  course  of  the  ninth, 
tenth,  and  eleventh  centuries,  the  Danes  invaded  the  island, 
got  possession  of  the  throne,  and  permanently  established  them¬ 
selves  in  the  northern  half  of  England,  as  the  country  was  then 
called. 

They  could  not  come,  however,  with  such  overwhelming  force 
as  either  to  exterminate  or  drive  out  the  English,  but  were  com¬ 
pelled  to  unite  with  them,  as  the  Normans  did  later  in  their 
conquest  under  William  of  Normandy. 

Hence  every  conquest  of  the  island  ended  in  a  compromise, 
and  no  one  race  got  complete  predominance.  Eventually  all 
mingled  and  became  one  people. 

29.  Earliest  Names:  Celtic. — The  steps  of  English  history 
may  be  traced  to  a  considerable  extent  by  geographical  names. 
Thus  the  names  of  most  of  the  prominent  natural  features,  the 
hills,  and  especially  the  streams,  are  British  or  Celtic,  carrying  us 
back  to  the  Bronze  Age,  and  perhaps  even  earlier.  Familiar 
examples  of  this  are  found  in  the  name,  Malvern  Hills,  and  in  the 
word  Avon  (“the  water”),  which  is  repeated  many  times  in 
England  and  Wales. 

30.  Roman  Names. — The  Roman  occupation  of  Britain  is 
shown  by  the  names  ending  in  “  cester,”  or  “  Chester  ”  (a  corrup¬ 
tion  of  castra ,  a  camp).  Thus  Leicester,  Worcester,  Dorchester, 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  ENGLAND 


13 


Colchester,  Chester,  indicate  that  these  places  were  walled  towns 
and  military  stations. 

31.  Saxon  Names.  —  On  the’ other  hand,  the  names  of  many 
of  the  great  political  divisions,  especially  in  the  south  and  east  of 
England,  mark  the  Saxon  settlements,  such  as  Essex  (the  East 
Saxons),  Sussex  (the  South  Saxons),  Middlesex  (the  Middle  or 
Central  Saxons).  In  the  same  way  the  settlement  of  the  two 
divisions  of  the  Angles  on  the  coast  is  indicated  by  the  names 
Norfolk  (the  North  folk)  and  Suffolk  (the  South  folk).1 

32.  Danish  Names. — The  conquests  and  settlements  of  the 
Danes  are  readily  traced  by  the  Danish  termination  “  by  ”  (an 
abode  or  town),  as  in  Derby,  Rugby,  Grimsby.  Hundreds  of*^ 
names  of  places  so  ending  may  be  counted.  They  occur  with 
scarce  an  exception  north  of  London.  They  date  back  to  the  time 
when  Alfred  made  the  Treaty  of  Wedmore,2  by  which  the  Danes 
agreed  to  confine  themselves  to  the  northern  half  of  the  country. 

33.  Norman  Names.  — The  conquest  of  England  by  the  Nor¬ 
mans  created  but  few  new  names.  These,  as  in  the  case  of  Rich¬ 
mond  and  Beaumont,  generally  show  where  the  invading  race 
built  a  castle  or  an  abbey,  or  where,  as  in  Montgomeryshire,  they 
conquered  and  held  a  district  in  Wales. 

While  each  new  invasion  left  its  mark  on  the  country,  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  greater  part  of  the  names  of  counties  and  towns 
are  of  Roman,  Saxon,  or  Danish  origin.  With  some  few  and  com¬ 
paratively  unimportant  exceptions,  the  map  of  England  remains 
to-day  in  this  respect  what  those  races  made  it  more  than  a 
thousand  years  ago. 

34.  Eastern  and  Western  Britain. — As  the  southern  and 
eastern  coasts  of  Britain  were  in  most  direct  communication  with 
the  continent,  and  were  first  settled,  they  continued  until  modern 
times  to  be  the  wealthiest,  most  civilized,  and  progressive  part  of 
the  island.  Much  of  the  western  portion  is  a  rough,  wild  country. 
To  it  the  East  Britons  retreated,  keeping  their  primitive  customs 
and  language,  as  in  Wales  and  Cornwall. 

1  See  Map  No.  6,  facing  page  42. 

2  Treaty  of  Wedmore.  See  Map  No.  5,  facing  page  40. 


14 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


In  all  the  great  movements  of  religious  or  political  reform,  up 
to  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  we  find  the  people  of 
the  eastern  half  of  the  island  on  the  side  of  a  larger  measure 
of  liberty ;  while  those  of  the  western  half  were  in  favor  of 
increasing  the  power  of  the  king  and  the  church. 

35.  The  Channel  in  English  History. — The  value  of  the 
Channel  to  England,  which  has  already  been  referred  to  in 
its  early  history  (§§  26,  27),  may  be  readily  traced  down  to  our 
own  day. 

In  1264,  when  Simon  de  Montfort  was  endeavoring  to  secure 
parliamentary  representation  for  the  people,  the  King  (Henry  III) 
sought  help  from  France.  A  fleet  was  got  ready  to  invade  the 
country  and  support  him,  but  owing  to  unfavorable  weather  it  was 
not  able  to  sail  in  season,  and  Henry  was  obliged  to  concede  the 
demands  made  for  reform.1 

Again,  at  the  time  of  the  threatened  attack  by  the  Spanish 
Armada,  when  the  tempest  had  dispersed  the  enemy’s  fleet  and 
wrecked  many  of  its  vessels,  leaving  only  a  few  to  creep  back, 
crippled  and  disheartened,  to  the  ports  whence  they  had  so 
proudly  sailed,  Elizabeth  fully  recognized  the  value  of  the 
“  ocean-wall  ”  to  her  dominions. 

So  Napoleon’s  intended  expedition  (1804)  was  postponed  and 
ultimately  abandoned  on  account  of  a  sudden  and  long-continued 
storm.  “  A  few  leagues  of  sea  saved  England  from  being  forced 
to  engage  in  a  war,  which,  if  it  had  not  entirely  trodden  civiliza¬ 
tion  under  foot,  would  have  certainly  crippled  it  for  a  whole 
generation.”  2 

Finally,  to  quote  the  words  of  Prof.  Goldwin  Smith,  “The 
English  Channel,  by  exempting  England  from  keeping  up  a  large 
standing  army  [though  it  has  compelled  her  to  maintain  a  power¬ 
ful  and  expensive,  navy],  has  preserved  her  from  military  despo¬ 
tism,  and  enabled  her  to  move  steadily  forward  in  the  path  of 
political  progress.” 

The  use  of  steam  for  vessels  of  war  has,  of  course,  greatly  dimin- 
ishecl  the  protective  power  of  the  Channel.  Still,  the  “  silver 


1  Stubbs,  Select  Charters,  401. 


2  Madame  de  Remusat. 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  ENGLAND 


15 


streak,”  as  the  English  call  it,  will  always  remain  in  some  degree 
a  defence  against  sudden  invasion. 

36.  Climate.  —  With  regard  to  the  climate  of  England,  —  its 
insular  form,  geographical  position,  and  especially  its  exposure  to 
the  warm  currents  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  give  it  a  mild  temperature 
particularly  favorable  to  the  full  and  healthy  development  of  both 
animal  and  vegetable  life. 

Nowhere  is  found  greater  vigor  or  longevity.  Charles  1 1, 
speaking  of  Europe,  said  that  he  was  convinced  that  there  was 
not  a  country  in  the  world,  so  far  as  he  knew,  where  one  could 
spend  so  much  time  out  of  doors  comfortably  as  in  England.  He 
might  have  added  that  the  people  fully  appreciate  this  fact  and 
habitually  avail  themselves  of  it. 

37.  Industrial  Division  of  England.  —  From  an  industrial  and 
historical  point  of  view,  the  country  falls  into  two  divisions.  Let 
a  line  be  drawn  from  Whitby,  on  the  northeast  coast,  to  Leicester, 
in  the  midlands,  and  thence  to  Exmouth,  on  the  southwest  coast.1 
On  the  upper  or  northwest  side  of  that  line  will  lie  the  coal  and 
iron  which  constitute  the  greater  part  of  the  mineral  wealth  and 
manufacturing  industry  of  England ;  and  also  all  the  large  towns 
except  London. 

On  the  lower  or  southeast  side  of  it  will  be  a  comparatively 
level  surface  of  rich  agricultural  land,  and  most  of  the  fine  old 
cathedral  cities2  with  their  historic  associations;  in  a  word,  the 
England  of  the  past  as  contrasted  with  modern  and  democratic 
England,  that  part  which  has  grown  up  since  the  introduction 
of  steam. 

38.  Commercial  Situation  of  England.  —  Finally,  the  position 
of  England  with  respect  to  commerce  is  worthy  of  note.  It  is 
not  only  possessed  of  a  great  number  of  excellent  harbors,  but  it  is 
situated  in  the  most  extensively  navigated  of  the  oceans,  between 
the  two  continents  having  the  highest  civilization  and  the  most 


1  Whitby,  Yorkshire;  Exmouth,  near  Exeter,  Devonshire. 

2  In  England  until  recent  years  the  cathedral  towns  only  were  called  cities,  but 
now  the  name  has  begun  to  be  conferred  by  royal  authority  on  other  large  and 
important  towns,  e.g.,  Birmingham. 


1 6  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 

constant  intercourse.  Next,  a  glance  at  the  map1  will  show  that 
geographically  England  is  located  at  about  the  centre  of  the  land 
masses  of  the  globe. 

It  is  evident  that  an  island  so  placed  stands  in  the  most  favor¬ 
able  position  for  easy  and  rapid  communication  with  every  quarter 
of  the  world.  On  this  account  England  has  been  able  to  attain 
and  maintain  the  highest  rank  among  maritime  and  commercial 
powers. 

It  is  true  that,  since  the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal,  in  1869,  the 
trade  with  the  Indies  and  China  has  changed.  Many  cargoes  of 
teas,  silks,  and  spices,  which  formerly  went  to  London,  Liverpool, 
or  Southampton,  and  were  thence  reshipped  to  different  countries 
of  Europe,  now  pass  by  other  channels  direct  to  the  consumer. 

But  aside  from  this,  England  still  retains  her  supremacy  as  the 
great  carrier  and  distributer  of  the  productions  of  the  earth,  —  a 
fact  which  has  had  and  must  continue  to  have  a  decided  influence 
on  her  history  and  on  her  relations  with  other  nations,  both  in 
peace  and  war. 

1  See  Maps  Nos.  12  and  19,  facing  pages  186  and  400. 


[58  B.C.] 


ROMAN  BRITAIN 


1 7 


SECTION  III 


“  Force  and  Right  rule  the  world  :  Force,  till  Right  is  ready.” 

Joubert. 

ROMAN  BRITAIN,  55  B.C. ;  43-410  A.D. 

A  CIVILIZATION  WHICH  DID  NOT  CIVILIZE 

39.  Europe  at  the  Time  of  Caesar's  Invasion  of  Britain.  — 

Before  considering  the  Roman  invasion  of  Britain  let  us  take  a 
glance  at  the  condition  of  Europe.  We  have  seen  that  the  Celtic 
tribes  (§19)  of  the  island,  like  those  of  Gaul  (France),  were 
not  mere  savages.  On  the  contrary,  we  know  that  they  had 
taken  more  than  one  important  step  in  the  path  of  progress  ; 
still,  the  advance  should  not  be  overrated.  For,  north  of  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  there  was  no  real  civilization. 

Whatever  gain  the  men  of  the  Bronze  Age  had  made,  it  was 
nothing  compared  to  what  they  had  yet  to  acquire.  They  had 
neither  organized  legislatures,  written  codes  of  law,  effectively 
trained  armies,  nor  extensive  commerce.  They  had  no  great 
cities,  grand  architecture,  literature,  painting,  music,  or  sculpture. 

Finally,  they  had  no  illustrious  and  imperishable  names.  All 
these  belonged  to  the  Republic  of  Rome,  or  to  the  countries  to 
the  south  and  east,  which  the  arms  of  Rome  had  conquered. 

40.  Caesar’s  Campaigns.  — Such  was  the  state  of  Europe  when 
Julius  Caesar,  who  was  governor  of  Gaul,  but  who  aspired  to  be 
ruler  of  the  world,  set  out  on  his  first  campaign  against  the  tribes 
north  of  the  Alps  (58  b.c.). 

In  undertaking  the  war  he  had  three  objects  in  view  :  First,  he 
wished  to  crush  the  power  of  those  restless  hordes  that  threatened 
the  safety,  not  only  of  the  Roman  provinces,  but  of  the  Republic 
itself.  Next,  he  sought  military  fame  as  a  stepping-stone  to 


1 8 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [55  b.c. 


supreme  political  power.  Lastly,  he  wanted  money  to  maintain 
his  army  and  to  bribe  the  party  leaders  of  Rome.  To  this  end 
every  tribe  which  he  conquered  would  be  forced  to  pay  him 
tribute  in  cash  or  slaves. 

41.  Caesar  reaches  Boulogne;  resolves  to  cross  to  Britain. — 

In  three  years  Caesar  had  subjugated  the  enemy  in  a  succession 
of  victories,  and  a  great  part  of  Europe  lay  helpless  at  his  feet. 
Late  in  the  summer  of  55  b.c.  he  reached  that  part  of  the  coast 
of  Gaul  where  Boulogne  is  now  situated,  opposite  which  one  may 
see  on  a  clear  day  the  gleaming  chalk  cliffs  of  Dover,  so  vividly 
described  in  Shakespeare’s  “  Lear.”  1 

While  encamped  on  the  shore  he  “  resolved,”  he  says,  “  to  pass 
over  into  Britain,  having  had  trustworthy  information  that  in  all 
his  wars  with  the  Gauls  the  enemies  of  the  Roman  Common¬ 
wealth  had  constantly  received  help  from  thence.”2 

42.  Britain  not  certainly  known  to  be  an  Island.  —  It  was  not 
known  then  with  certainty  that  Britain  was  an  island.  Many  con-  M 
fused  reports  had  been  circulated  respecting  that  strange  land  in  the 
Atlantic  on  which  only  a  few  adventurous  traders  had  ever  set  foot. 

It  was  spoken  of  in  literature  as  “  another  world,”  or,  as  Plutarch 
called  it,  “a  country  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  habitable  globe.”3 
To  that  other  world  the  Roman  general,  impelled  by  ambition,  by 
curiosity,  by  desire  of  vengeance,  and  by  love  of  gain,  determined 
to  go. 

43.  Caesar’s  First  Invasion,  55  B.C. —  Embarking  with  a  force 
of  between  eight  and  ten  thousand  men  4  in  eighty  small  vessels, 
Caesar  crossed  the  Channel  and  landed  not  far  from  Dover,  w:here 
he  overcame  the  Britons,  w'ho  made  a  desperate  resistance.  After 
a  stay  of  a  few  wreeks,  during  which  he  did  not  leave  the  coast,  he 
returned  to  Gaul. 

44.  Second  Invasion  (54  B.C.).  —  The  next  year,  a  little  earlier 
in  the  season,  Caesar  made  a  second  invasion  with  a  much  larger 

1  Shakespeare’s  Lear,  A.  IV,  S.  6.  2  Caesar’s  Gallic  War,  B.  IV. 

3  Plutarch’s  Julius  Caesar. 

}  Caesar  is  supposed  to  have  sailed  about  the  25th  of  August,  55  B.c.  His  force 
consisted  of  two  legions,  the  7th  and  10th.  A  legion  varied  at  different  times  from 
3000  foot  and  200  horse  soldiers  to  6000  foot  and  400  horse. 


54  B.C.-43  A.D.] 


ROMAN  BRITAIN 


19 


force,  and  penetrated  the  country  to  a  short  distance  north  of  the 
Thames.  Before  the  September  gales  set  in,  he  reembarked  for 
the  continent,  never  to  return. 

The  total  result  of  his  two  expeditions  was,  a  number  of  natives 
carried  as  hostages  to  Rome,  a  long  train  of  captives  destined  to 
be  sold  in  the  slave  markets,  and  some  promises  of  tribute  which 
were  never  fulfilled.  Tacitus  remarks,  “  He  did  not  conquer 
Britain;  he  only  showed  it  to  the  Romans.”1 

Yet  so  powerful  was  Csesar’s  influence,  that  his  invasion  was 
spoken  of  as  a  splendid  victory,  and  the  Roman  Senate  ordered  a 
thanksgiving  of  twenty  days,  in  gratitude  to  the  gods  and  in  honor 
of  the  achievement. 

45.  Third  Invasion  of  Britain,  43  A.D.  —  For  nearly  a  hundred 
years  no  further  attempt  was  made,  but  in  43  a.d.,  after  Rome 
had  become  a  monarchy,  the  Emperor  Claudius  ordered  a  third 
invasion  of  Britain,  in  which  he  himself  took  part. 

This  was  successful,  and  after  nine  years  of  fighting,  the  Roman 
forces  overcame  Caractacus,  the  leader  of  the  Britons. 

46.  Caractacus  carried  Captive  to  Rome.  —  In  company  with 
many  prisoners,  Caractacus  was  taken  in  chains  to  Rome.  Alone 
of  all  the  captives,  he  refused  to  beg  for  life  or  liberty.  “  Can  it 
be  possible,”  said  he,  as  he  was  led  through  the  streets,  “  that  men 
who  live  in  such  palaces  as  these  envy  us  our  wretched  hovels  !  ”  1 
“  It  was  the  dignity  of  the  man,  even  in  ruins,”  says  Tacitus, 
“  which  saved  him.”  The  Emperor,  struck  with  his  bearing  and 
his  speech,  ordered  him  to  be  set  free. 

47.  The  First  Roman  Colony  planted  in  Britain.  —  Meanwhile 
the  armies  of  the  Empire  had  firmly  established  themselves  in  the 
southeastern  part  of  the  island.  There  they  formed  the  colony  of 
Camulodunum,  the  modern  Colchester.2  There,  too,  they  built  a 
temple  and  set  up  the  statue  of  the  Emperor  Claudius,  which  the 
soldiers  worshipped,  both  as  a  protecting  god  and  as  a  representa¬ 
tive  of  the  Roman  state. 

48.  Llyn-din.3  —  The  army  had  also  conquered  other  places, 
among  which  was  a  little  native  settlement  on  one  of  the  broadest 

1  Tacitus,  Annals.  2  See  Map  No.  2,  facing  page  22.  8  Llyn-din  (Lin-din). 


20 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [43-78 

parts  of  the  Thames.  It  consisted  of  a  few  miserable  huts  and  a 
row  of  entrenched  cattle  pens.  It  was  called  in  the  Celtic  or 
British  tongue  Llyn-din  or  the  Fort-on-the-lake.  This  word,  which 
was  pronounced  with  difficulty  by  Roman  lips,  eventually  became 
that  name  which  the  world  now  knows  wherever  ships  sail,  trade 
reaches,  or  history  is  read,  —  London. 

49.  Expedition  against  the  Druids.  —  But  in  order  to  complete 
the  conquest  of  the  country,  the  Roman  generals  saw  that  it  would 
be  necessary  to  crush  the  power  of  the  Druids  (§  23),  since  their 
passionate  exhortations  kept  patriotism  alive.  The  island  of 
Mona,1  now  Anglesea,  off  the  coast  of  Wales,  was  the  stronghold 
to  which  the  Druids  had  retreated.  As  the  Roman  soldiers 
approached  to  attack  them,  they  beheld  the  priests  and  women 
standing  on  the  shore,  with  uplifted  hands,  uttering  “  dreadful 
prayers  and  imprecations.” 

For  a  moment  they  hesitated  ;  then,  urged  by  their  general,  they 
rushed  upon  them,  cut  them  to  pieces,  levelled  their  consecrated 
groves  to  the  ground,  and  cast  the  bodies  of  the  Druids  into  their 
own  sacred  fires.  From  this  blow  Druidism  as  an  organized 
faith  never  recovered,  though  traces  of  its  religious  rites  still  sur¬ 
vive  in  the  use  of  the  mistletoe  at  Christmas  and  in  May-day 
festivals. 

50.  Revolt  of  Boadicea  (61). — Still  the  power  of  the  Latin 
legions  was  only  partly  established,  for  while  Suetonius2  was  absent 
with  his  troops  at  Mona,  a  formidable  revolt  had  broken  out  in 
the  east.  The  cause  of  the  insurrection  was  Roman  rapacity  and 
cruelty.  A  native  chief,  in  order  to  secure  half  of  his  property  to 
his  family  at  his  death,  left  it  to  be  equally  divided  between  his 
daughters  and  the  Emperor ;  but  the  governor  of  the  district, 
under  the  pretext  that  his  widow  Boadicea  had  concealed  part  of 
the  property,  seized  the  whole. 

Boadicea  protested.  To  punish  her  presumption  she  was 
stripped,  bound,  and  scourged  as  a  slave,  and  her  daughters 
given  up  to  still  more  brutal  and  infamous  treatment.  Maddened 
by.  these  outrages,  Boadicea  roused  the  tribes  by  her  appeals. 

1  See  Map  No.  2,  facing  page  22.  2  Suetonius  (Sue-to'-ni-us). 


'THE  WHITE  WALLS  OF  ENGLAND  ”  — THE  SHAKESPEARE  CLIFF,  DOVER 


43-78] 


ROMAN  BRITAIN 


21 


They  fell  upon  London  and  other  cities,  burned  them  to  the 
ground,  and  slaughtered  many  thousand  inhabitants. 

For  a  time  it  looked  as  though  the  whole  country  would  be 
restored  to  the  Britons ;  but  Suetonius  heard  of  the  disaster,  hur¬ 
ried  from  the  north,  and  fought  a  final  battle,  so  tradition  says, 
on  ground  within  sight  of  where  St.  Paul’s  Cathedral  now  stands. 
The  Roman  general  gained  a  complete  victory,  and  Boadicea,  the 
Cleopatra  of  the  North,  as  she  has  been  called,  took  her  own 
life,  rather  than,  like  the  Egyptian  queen,  fall  into  the  hands  of 
her  conquerors. 

She  died,  let  us  trust,  as  the  poet  has  represented,  animated 
by  the  prophecy  of  the  Druid  priest  that,  — 


“  Rome  shall  perish  — write  that  word 
In  the  blood  that  she  has  spilt ;  — 


Perish,  hopeless  and  abhorred, 
Deep  in  ruin,  as  in  guilt.”1 


51.  Christianity  introduced  into  Britain.  —  Perhaps  it  was  not 
long  after  this  that  Christianity  made  its  way  to  Britain  ;  if  so, 
it  crept  in  so  silently  that  nothing  certain  can  be  learned  of  its 
advent.  Our  only  record  concerning  it  is  found  in  monkish 
chronicles  filled  with  bushels  of  legendary  chaff,  from  which  a 
few  grains  of  historic  truth  may  be  here  and  there  picked  out. 

The  first  church,  it  is  said,  was  built  at  Glastonbury.2  It  was 
a  long,  shed-like  structure  of  wicker-work.  “  Here,”  says  Fuller, 
“  the  converts  watched,  fasted,  preached,  and  prayed,  having 
high  meditations  under  a  low  roof  and  large  hearts  within  nar¬ 
row  walls.”  Later  there  may  have  been  more  substantial  edifices 
erected  at  Canterbury  by  the  British  Christians,  but  at  what  date 
it  is  impossible  to  say. 

At  first  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  new  religion.  It  was  the  faith 
of  the  poor  and  the  obscure,  hence  the  Roman  generals  regarded 
it  with  contempt ;  but  as  it  continued  to  spread,  it  caused  alarm. 

The  Roman  Emperor  was  not  only  the  head  of  the  state,  but 
the  head  of  religion  as  well.  He  represented  the  power  of  God 
1  Cowper’s  Boadicea  (Bo-ad'-i-ce'-a). 


2  Glastonbury,  Somersetshire. 


22 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [43-78 


A 


on  earth  :  to  him  every  knee  must  bow  ;  but  the  Christian  refused 
this  homage.  He  put  Christ  first ;  for  that  reason  he  was  danger¬ 
ous  to  the  state  :  if  he  was  not  already  a  traitor  and  rebel,  he 
was  suspected  to  be  on  the  verge  of  becoming  both. 

52.  Persecution  of  British  Christians;  St.  Alban. — Toward 
the  last  of  the  third  century  the  Roman  Emperor  Diocletian 
resolved  to  root  out  this  pernicious  belief.  He  began  a  course 
of  systematic  persecution  which  extended  to  every  part  of  the 
Empire,  including  Britain.  The  first  martyr  was  Alban.  He 
refused  to  sacrifice  to  the  Roman  deities,  and  was  beheaded. 

“  But  he  who  gave  the  wicked  stroke,”  says  Bede,1  with  child¬ 
like  simplicity,  “  was  not  permitted  to  rejoice  over  the  deed,  for 
his  eyes  dropped  out  upon  the  ground  together  with  the  blessed 
martyr’s  head.” 

Five  hundred  years  later  the  abbey  of  St.  Alban’s  2  rose  on  the 
spot  to  commemorate  him  who  had  fallen  there,  and  on  his 
account  that  abbey  stood  superior  to  all  others  in  power  and 
privilege. 

53.  Agricola  explores  the  Coast  and  builds  a  Line  of  Forts  (78). 

Agricola,8  a  wise  and  equitable  Roman  ruler,  became  governor 
of  Britain.  His  fleets  explored  the  coast,  and  first  discovered 
Britain  to  be  an  island.  He  gradually  extended  the  limits  of  the 
government,  and,  in  order  to  prevent  invasion  from  the  north,  he 
built  a  line  of  forts  (completed  by  Antoninus)  across  Caledonia, 
or  Scotland,  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  Forth  to  the  Clyde.4 

54.  The  Romans  clear  and  cultivate  the  Country.  —  From  this 
date  the  power  of  Rome  was  finally  fixed.  During  the  period  of 
three  hundred  years  which  follows,  the  entire  surface  of  the  coun¬ 
try  underwent  a  great  change.  Forests  were  cleared,  marshes 
drained,  waste  lands  reclaimed,  rivers  banked  in  and  bridged. 
Furthermore  the  soil  was  made  so  productive  that  Britain  became 
known  in  Rome  as  the  most  important  grain-producing  and 
grain-exporting  province  in  the  Empire. 


1  Bede.  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Britain,  completed  about  the  year  731. 

2  St.  Albans,  Hertfordshire,  about  twenty  miles  northwest  of  London.  See  Map 

No.  22,  facing  page  416.  3  Agricola  (A-gric'-o-la).  4  See  Map  No.  2,  facing  page  22. 


78-410] 


ROMAN  BRITAIN 


23 


55.  Roman  Cities;  York. — Where  the  Britons  had  had  a 
humble  village  enclosed  by  a  ditch,  with  felled  trees,  to  protect  it, 
there  rose  such  walled  towns  as  Chester,  Lincoln,  London,  and 
York,  w^th  some  two  score  more,  most  of  which  have  continued 
to  be  centres  of  population  ever  since. 

Of  these,  London  early  became  the  commercial  metropolis, 
while  York  was  acknowledged  to  be  both  the  military  and  civil 
capital  of  the  country.  There  the  Sixth  Legion  was  stationed. 
It  was  the  most  noted  body  of  troops  in  the  Roman  army,  and 
was  called  the  “Victorious  Legion.”  It  remained  there  for  up¬ 
ward  of  three  hundred  years.  There,  too,  the  governor  resided 
and  administered  justice.  For  these  reasons  York  got  the  name 
of  “  another  Rome.” 

It  was  defended  by  walls  flanked  with  towers,  some  of  which 
are  still  standing.  It  had  numerous  temples  and  public  build¬ 
ings,  such  as  befitted  the  first  city  of  Britain.  There,  also,  an 
event  occurred  in  the  fourth  century  which  made  an  indelible 
mark  on  the  history  of  mankind.  For  at  York,  Constantine,  the 
subsequent  founder  of  Constantinople,  was  proclaimed  emperor, 
and  through  his  influence  Christianity  became  the  established 
religion  of  the  Empire.1 

56.  Roman  System  of  Government ;  Roads.  —  During  the 
Roman  possession  of  Britain  the  country  was  differently  gov¬ 
erned  at  different  periods,  but  eventually  it  was  divided  into  five 
provinces.  These  were  intersected  by  a  magnificent  system  of 
paved  roads  running  in  direct  lines  from  city  to  city,  and  having 
London  as  a  common  centre.'2 

Across  the  Strait  of  Dover,  they  connected  with  a  similar  system 
of  roads  throughout  France,  Spain,  and  Italy,  which  terminated 
at  Rome.  Over  these  roads  bodies  of  troops  could  be  rapidly 
marched  to  any  needed  point,  and  by  them  officers  of  state 
mounted  on  relays  of  fleet  horses  could  pass  from  one  end  of 
the  Empire  to  the  other  in  a  few  days’  time. 

So  skilfully  and  substantially  were  these  highways  constructed, 

1  Constantine  was  the  first  Christian  emperor  of  Rome.  The  preceding  emperors 
had  generally  persecuted  the  Christians.  2  See  Map  opposite. 


24 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [7S-410 


that  modern  engineers  have  been  glad  to  adopt  them  as  a  basis 
for  their  work,  and  the  four  leading  Roman  roads 1  continue  to  be 
the  foundation,  not  only  of  numerous  turnpikes  in  different  parts 
of  England,  but  also  of  several  of  the  great  railway  lines,  especially 
those  from  London  to  Chester  and  from  London  to  York. 

57.  Roman  Forts  and  Walls.  —  Next  in  importance  to  the 
roads  were  the  fordfications.  In  addition  to  those  which  Agricola 
had  built  (§  53),  Hadrian,  a  later  ruler,  constructed  a  wall  of  solid 
masonry  entirely  across  the  country  from  the  shore  of  the  North 
to  that  of  the  Irish  Sea.  This  wall,  which  was  about  seventy-five 
miles  south  of  Agricola’s  work,  was  strengthened  by  a  deep  ditch 
and  a  rampart  of  earth.2 

It  was  further  defended  by  castles  built  at  regular  intervals  of  one 
mile.  These  were  of  stone,  and  from  sixty  to  seventy  feet  square. 
Between  them  were  stone  turrets  or  watch-towers  which  were  used 
as  sentry  boxes  ;  while  at  every  fourth  mile  there  was  a  fort,  cover¬ 
ing  from  three  to  six  acres,  occupied  by  a  large  body  of  troops. 

58.  Defences  against  Saxon  Pirates.  —  But  the  northern  tribes 
were  not  the  only  ones  to  be  guarded  against ;  bands  of  pirates 
prowled  along  the  east  and  south  coasts,  burning,  plundering, 
and  kidnapping.  These  marauders  came  from  Denmark  and  the 
adjacent  countries. 

The  Britons  and  Romans  called  them  Saxons,  a  most  significant 
name  if,  as  is  generally  supposed,  it  refers  to  the  short,  stout 
knives  which  made  them  a  terror  to  every  land  on  which  they  set 
foot.  To  repel  them,  a  strong  chain  of  forts  was  erected  on  the 
coast,  extending  from  the  Wash  on  the  North  Sea  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight  on  the  south. 

The  greater  part  of  these  cities,  walls,  and  fortifications  have  • 
perished.  But  those  which  remain  justify  the  statement  that  “  out¬ 
side  of  England  no  such  monuments  exist  of  the  power  and 
military  genius  of  Rome.” 

59.  Roman  Civilization  False. —Yet  the* whole  fabric  was  as 
hollow  and  false  as  it  was  splendid.  Civilization,  like  truth,  cannot 

1  The  four  chief  roads  were:  1.  Watling  Street;  2.  Icknield  Street;  3.  Ermine 
Street ;  and  4.  The  Fosse  Way.  See  Map  No.  2,  facing  page  22.  -  See  above  Map. 


78-410] 


ROMAN  BRITAIN 


25 


be  forced  on  minds  unwilling  or  unable  to  receive  it.  Least  of  all 
can  it  be  forced  by  the  sword’s  point  and  the  taskmaster’s  lash. 

In  order  to  render  his  victories  on  the  continent  secure,  Caesar 
had  not  hesitated  to  butcher  thousands  of  prisoners  of  war  or 
to  cut  off  the  right  hands  of  the  entire  population  of  a  large 
settlement  to  prevent  them  from  rising  in  revolt. 

The  policy  pursued  in  Britain,  though  very  different,  was 
equally  heartless  and  equally  fatal.  There  was  indeed  an  occa¬ 
sional  ruler  who  endeavored  to  act  justly,  but  such  cases  were 
rare.  Galgacus,  a  leader  of  the  North  Britons,  said  with  truth  of 
the  Romans,  “  They  give  the  lying  name  of  Empire  to  robbery 
and  slaughter;  they  make  a  desert  and  call  it  peace.” 

60.  The  Mass  of  the  Native  Population  Slaves.  —  It  is  true 
that  the  chief  cities  of  Britain  were  exempt  from  oppression. 
They  elected  their  own  magistrates  and  made  their  own  laws,  but 
they  enjoyed  this  liberty  because  their  inhabitants  were  either 
Roman  soldiers  or  their  allies. 

Outside  these  cities  the  great  mass  of  the  native  population 
were  bound  to  the  soil,  while  a  large  proportion  of  them  were 
absolute  slaves.  Their  work  was  in  the  brick  fields,  the  quarries, 
the  mines,  or  in  the  ploughed  land,  or  the  forest.  Their  homes 
were  wretched  cabins  plastered  with  mud,  thatched  with  straw,  and 
built  on  the  estates  of  masters  who  paid  no  wages. 

61 .  Roman  Villas.  —  The  masters  lived  in  stately  villas  adorned 
with  pavements  of  different  colored  marbles  and  beautifully  painted 
walls.  These  country-houses,  often  as  large  as  palaces,  were 
warmed  in  winter,  like  our  modern  dwellings,  with  currents  of 
heated  air.  In  summer  they  opened  on  terraces  ornamented 
with  vases  and  statuary,  and  on  spacious  gardens  of  fruits  and 
flowers.1 

62.  Roman  Taxation  and  Cruelty.  —  Such  was  the  condition  of 
the  laboring  classes.  Those  who  were  called  free  were  hardly 
better  off,  for  nearly  all  that  they  could  earn  was  swallowed  up  in 
taxes.  The  standing  army  of  Britain,  which  the  people  of  the 

1  About  one  hundred  of  these  villas  or  country-houses,  chiefly  in  the  south  and 
southwest  of  England,  have  been  exhumed.  Some  of  them  cover  several  acres. 


26 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [78-410 


country  had  to  support,  rarely  numbered  less  than  forty  thousand. 
The  population  was  not  only  scanty,  but  it  was  poor.  Every 
farmer  had  to  pay  a  third  of  all  that  his  farm  could  produce,  in 
taxes.  Every  article  that  he  sold  had  also  to  pay  duty,  and  finally 
there  was  a  poll-tax  on  the  man  himself. 

On  the  continent  there  was  a  saying  that  it  was  better  for  a 
property-owner  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  savages  than  into  those  of 
the  Roman  assessors.  When  they  went  round,  they  counted  not 
only  every  ox  and  sheep,  but  every  plant,  and  registered  them  as 
well  as  the  owners.  “  One  heard  nothing,”  says  a  writer  of  that 
time,  speaking  of  the  days  when  revenue  was  collected,  “  but  the 
sound  of  flogging  and  all  kinds  of  torture.  The  son  was  compelled 
to  inform  against  his  father,  and  the  wife  against  her  husband.  If 
other  means  failed,  men  were  forced  to  give  evidence  against 
themselves,  and  were  assessed  according  to  the  confession  they 
made  to  escape  torment.”  1 

So  great  was  the  misery  of  the  land  that  it  wras  not  an  uncom¬ 
mon  thing  for  parents  to  destroy  their  children,  rather  than  let 
them  grow  up  to  a  life  of  suffering.  This  vast  system  of  organized 
oppression,  like  all  tyranny,  “  wras  not  so  much  an  institution 
as  a  destitution,”  undermining  and  impoverishing  the  country. 
It  lasted  until  time  brought  its  revenge,  and  Rome,  which 
had  crushed  so  many  nations  of  barbarians,  was  in  her  turn 
threatened  with  a  like  fate,  by  bands  of  barbarians  stronger  than 
herself. 

63.  The  Romans  compelled  to  abandon  Britain,  410. — When 

Caesar  returned  from  his  victorious  campaigns  in  Gaul  in  the  first 
century  b.c.,  Cicero  exultantly  exclaimed,  “  Now',  let  the  Alps 
sink  !  the  gods  raised  them  to  shelter  Italy  from  the  barbarians ; 
they  are  no  longer  needed.”  For  nearly  five  centuries  that  con¬ 
tinued  true  ;  then  the  tribes  of  Northern  Europe  could  no  longer 
be  held  back.  When  the  Roman  emperors  saw  that  the  crisis  had 
arrived,  they  recalled  the  legions  from  Britain.  The  rest  of  the 
colonists  soon  followed. 

For  the  year  409  wTe  find  this  brief  but  expressive  entry  in  the 

1  Lactantius.  See  Elton’s  Origins  of  English  History. 


78-410] 


ROMAN  BRITAIN 


27 


Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,1  “  After  this  the  Romans  never  ruled  in 
Britain.”  A  few  years  later  this  entry  occurs  :  “418.  This  year 
the  Romans  collected  all  the  treasures  in  Britain  ;  some  they  hid 
in  the  earth,  so  that  no  one  since  has  been  able  to  find  them,  and 
some  they  carried  with  them  into  Gaul.” 

64.  Remains  of  Roman  Civilization.  —  In  the  course  of  the 
next  three  generations  whatever  Roman  civilization  had  accom¬ 
plished  in  the  island,  politically  and  socially,  had  disappeared.  A 
few  words,  indeed,  such  as  “  port  ”  and  “  street,”  have  come  down 
to  us.  Save  these,  nothing  is  left  but  the  material  shell,  —  the 
walls,  roads,  forts,  villas,  arches,  gateways,  altars,  and  tombs,  the 
ruins  of  which  are  still  to  be  seen  scattered  throughout  the  land. 

The  soil,  also,  is  full  of  relics  of  the  same  kind.  Twenty  feet 
below  the  surface  of  the  London  of  to-day  lie  the  remains  of  the 
London  of  the  Romans.  In  digging  in  the  “city,”  ~  the  laborer’s 
shovel  every  now  and  then  brings  to  light  bits  of  rusted  armor, 
broken  swords,  fragments  of  statuary,  and  gold  and  silver  ornaments. 

So,  likewise,  several  towns,  long  buried  in  the  earth,  and  the 
foundations  of  upwards  of  a  hundred  country-houses,  have  been 
discovered  ;  but  these  seem  to  be  about  all.  If  Rome  left  any 
traces  of  her  literature,  law,  and  methods  of  government,  they  are 
so  doubtful  that  they  serve  only  as  subjects  for  antiquarians  to 
wrangle  over.3 

Were  it  not  for  the  stubborn  endurance  of  ivy-covered  ruins 
like  those  of  Pevensey,  Chester,  and  York,  and  of  that  gigantic 
wall  of  masonry 4  which  still  stretches  across  the  bleak  moors 

1  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle :  the  earliest  English  history.  It  was  probably  begun 
in  the  ninth  century,  in  the  reign  of  Alfred.  It  extends,  in  different  copies,  from 
C®sar’s  invasion  until  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Henry  II,  1 154.  It  is  supposed 
that  the  work  was  written  in  Canterbury,  Peterborough,  and  other  monasteries. 
The  first  part  of  it  is  evidently  based  on  tradition  ;  but  the  whole  is  of  great  value, 
especially  from  the  time  of  Alfred. 

2  The  “  city,”  —  that  part  of  London  formerly  enclosed  by  Roman  walls,  together 
with  a  small  outlying  district.  Its  limit  on  the  west  is  the  site  of  Temple  Bar ;  on 
the  east,  the  Tower  of  London. 

3  Scarth,  Pearson,  Guest,  Elton,  and  Coote  believe  that  Roman  civilization  had 
a  permanent  influence;  while  Lappenburg,  Stubbs,  Freeman,  Green,  Wright,  and 
Gardiner  deny  it. 

4  See  Map  No.  2,  facing  p.-.ge  cc. 


28 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [78-410 


of  Northumberland,  we  might  well  doubt  whether  there  ever  was  a 
time  when  the  Caesars  held  Britain  in  their  relentless  grasp. 

65.  Good  Results  of  the  Roman  Conquest  of  Britain.  — Still,  it 
would  be  an  error  to  suppose  that  the  conquest  and  occupation  of 
the  island  had  no  results  for  good.  Had  Rome  fallen  a  century 
earlier,  the  world  would  have  been  the  loser  by  it,  for  during  that 
century  the  inhabitants  of  Gaul  and  Spain  were  brought  into 
closer  contact  than  ever  with  the  only  power  then  existing  which 
could  teach  them  the  lesson  they  were  prepared  to  learn. 

Unlike  the  Britons,  they  adopted  the  Latin  language  for  their 
own ;  they  made  themselves  acquainted  with  its  literature  and 
aided  in  its  preservation  ;  they  accepted  the  Roman  law  and  the 
Roman  idea  of  government ;  lastly,  they  acknowledged  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  the  Christian  church,  and,  with  Constantine’s  help,  they 
•organized  it  on  a  solid  foundation. 

Had  Rome  fallen  a  prey  to  the  invaders  in  318  instead  of  410,1 
it  is  doubtful  if  any  of  these  results  would  have  taken  place, 
and  it  is  almost  certain  that  the  last  and  most  important  of  all 
could  not. 

Britain  furnished  Rome  with  abundant  food  supplies,  and  sent 
thousands  of  troops  to  serve  in  the  Roman  armies  on  the  continent. 
Britain  also  supported  the  numerous  colonies  which  were  con¬ 
stantly  emigrating  to  her  from  Italy,  and  thus  kept  open  the  lines 
of  communication  with  the  mother-country. 

By  so  doing  she  helped  to  maintain  the  circulation  of  the  life- 
currents  in  the  remotest  branches  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Because 
of  this,  that  Empire  was  able  to  resist  the  barbarians  until  the 
seeds  of  the  old  civilization  had  time  to  root  themselves  and  to 
spring  up  with  promise  of  a  new  and  nobler  growth. 

In  itself,  then,  though  the  island  gained  practically  nothing  from 
the  Roman  occupation,  yet  through  it  mankind  was  destined  to 
gain  much.  During  these  centuries  the  story  of  Britain  is  that 
which  history  so  often  repeats,  —  a  part  of  Europe  was  sacrificed 
that  the  wrhole  might  not  be  lost. 


1  Rome  was  plundered  by  the  Goths  in  410;  the  Empire  fell  in  476. 

X 


ROMAN  WALL  (at  Cuddy's  Crag,  Northumberland) 


ROMAN  ROAD  (Salisbury  Plain,  Stonehenge,  seen  in  the  distance) 


443] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


29 


SECTION  IV 


“  The  happy  ages  of  history  are  never  the  productive  ones.” 

Hegel. 

THE  COMINCx  OF  THE  SAXONS,  OR  ENGLISH, 
449  A.D. 

BATTLES  OF  THE  TRIBES  —  BRITAIN  BECOMES  ENGLAND 

66.  Condition  of  the  Britons  after  the  Romans  left  the  Island. 

—  Three  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  Roman  law  and  order  had 
completely  tamed  the  fiery  aborigines  of  the  island.  After  the 
legions  abandoned  it,  Gildas,1  “  the  British  Jeremiah,”  as  Gibbon 
calls  him,  declared  that  the  Britons  were  no  longer  brave  in  war 
or  faithful  in  peace. 

Certainly  their  condition  was  both  precarious  and  perilous. 
On  the  north  they  were  assailed  by  the  Piets,  on  the  northwest 
by  the  Scots,'2  on  the  south  and  east  by  the  Saxons.  What  was 
perhaps  worst  and  most  dangerous  of  all,  they  quarrelled  among 
themselves  over  points  of  theological  doctrine. 

They  had,  indeed,  the  love  of  liberty,  but  not  the  spirit  of 
unity.  The  consequence  was,  that  their  enemies,  bursting  in  on 
all  sides,  cut  them  down,  says  Bede,  as  “  reapers  cut  down  ripe 
grain.” 

67.  Letter  to  Aetius  (443).  — At  length  the  chief  men  of  the 
country  joined  in  a  piteous  and  pusillanimous  letter  begging 
help  from  Rome.  It  was  addressed  as  follows:  “To  Aetius, 

1  Gildas:  a  British  monk,  5 1 6(?)— 5 7o(?).  He  wrote  an  account  of  the  Saxon 
conquest  of  Britain. 

2  Piets :  ancient  tribes  of  the  north  and  northeast  of  Scotland  ;  Scots :  originally 
inhabitants  of  Ireland,  some  of  whom  settled  in  the  west  of  Scotland  and  gave  their 
name  to  the  whole  country. 


30 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [443-449 


Consul1  for  the  third  time,  the  groans  of  the  Britons.”  The  letter 
summed  up  their  calamities  in  these  words :  “  The  barbarians 
drive  us  to  the  sea,  the  sea  drives  us  back  to  the  barbarians ; 
between  them  we  are  either  slain  or  drowned.”  Aetius,  however, 
was  fighting  the  enemies  of  Rome  at  home,  and  left  the  Britons 
to  shift  for  themselves. 

68.  Vortigern’s  Advice. — Finally,  in  their  desperation,  they 
adopted  the  advice  of  Vortigern,  a  chief  of  Kent.  He  urged 
them  to  fight  fire  with  fire,  by  inviting  a  band  of  Saxons  to  form 
an  alliance  with  them  against  the  Piets  and  Scots.  The  proposal 
was  very  readily  accepted  by  a  tribe  of  Jutes. 

They,  with  the  Angles  and  Saxons,  occupied  the  peninsula  of 
Jutland,  or  Denmark,  and  the  seacoast  to  the  south  of  it.  All  of 
them  were  known  to  the  Britons  under  the  general  name  of  Saxons. 

69.  Coming  of  the  Jutes  (449).  —  Hildas  records  their  arrival 
in  characteristic  terms,  saying  that  “  in  449  a  multitude  of  whelps 
came  from  the  lair  of  the  barbaric  lioness,  in  three  keels,  as  they 
call  them.”2 

We  get  a  good  picture  of  what  they  were  like  from  the  exultant 
song  of  their  countryman,  Beowulf.3  He  describes  with  pride  “  the 
dragon-prowed  ships,”  filled  with  sea-robbers,  armed  with  “  rough- 
handled  spears  and  swords  of  bronze,”  which  under  their  leaders 
sailed  for  the  shining  coasts  of  Britain. 

These  three  keels,  or  war-ships,  under  the  command  of  the 
chieftains  Hengist  and  Horsa,  were  destined  to  grow  into  a  king¬ 
dom.  Settling  at  first,  according  to  agreement,  in  the  island  of 
Thanet,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,4  the  Jutes  soon  fulfilled 
their  contract  to  free  the  country  from  the  ravages  of  the  Piets. 
Afterward  they  easily  found  a  pretext  for  seizing  the  fairest 

1  Consul :  originally  one  of  two  chief  magistrates  governing  Rome ;  later  the 
consuls  ruled  over  the  chief  provinces,  and  sometimes  commanded  armies.  Still 
later  they  became  wholly  subject  to  the  emperors,  and  had  little,  if  any,  real  power 
of  their  own. 

2  See  Map  No.  3,  facing  page  34. 

3  Beowulf :  the  hero  of  the  earliest  Anglo-Saxon  or  English  epic  poem.  It  is 
uncertain  whether  it  was  written  on  the  continent  or  in  England.  Some  authorities 
refer  it  to  the  ninth  century,  others  to  the  fifth. 

4  See  Map  No.  5,  facing  page  40. 


449-490] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


31 


portion  of  Kent  for  themselves  and  their  kinsmen,  who  came, 
vulture-like,  in  ever-increasing  multitudes. 

70.  Invasion  by  the  Saxons  (477).  — The  success  of  the  Jutes 
incited  their  neighbors,  the  Saxons,  who  came  under  the  leader¬ 
ship  of  Ella,  and  Cissa,  his  son,  for  their  share  of  the  spoils.  They 
conquered  a  part  of  the  country  bordering  on  the  Channel,  and, 
settling  there,  gave  it  the  name  of  Sussex,  or  the  country  of  the 
South  Saxons.1 

We  learn  from  two  sources  how  the  land  was  wrested  from  the 
native  inhabitants.  On  the  one  side  is  the  account  given  by  the 
British  monk  Gildas ;  on  the  other,  that  of  the  Saxon  or  English 
Chronicle  (§  135). 

Both  agree  that  it  was  gained  by  the  edge  of  the  sword,  with 
burning,  pillaging,  massacre,  and  captivity.  “  Some,”  says  Gildas, 
“were  caught  in  the  hills  and  slaughtered;  others,  worn  out  with 
hunger,  gave  themselves  up  to  lifelong  slavery.  Some  fled  across 
the  sea ;  others  trusted  themselves  to  the  clefts  of  the  mountains, 
to  the  forests,  and  to  the  rocks  along  the  coast.”  By  the  Saxons 
we  are  told  that  the  Britons  fled  before  them  “as  from  fire.” 

71.  Siege  of  Anderida  (490).  —  Again,  the  Chronicle  tersely 
says  :  “  In  490  Ella  and  Cissa  besieged  Anderida  (the  modern 
Pevensey)2  and  put  to  death  all  who  dwelt  there,  so  that  not 
a  single  Briton  remained  alive  in  it.” 

When,  however,  they  took  a  fortified  town  like  Anderida,  they 
did  not  occupy,  but  abandoned  it.  So  the  place  stands  to-day, 
with  the  exception  of  a  Norman  castle  built  there  in  the  eleventh 
century,  just  as  the  invaders  left  it. 

Accustomed  as  they  were  to  a  wild  life,  they  hated  the  restraint 
and  scorned  the  protection  of  stone  walls.  It  was  not  until  after 
many  generations  had  passed  that  they  became  reconciled  to  live 
within  them. 

In  the  same  spirit  they  refused  to  appropriate  anything  which 
Rome  had  left.  They  burned  the  villas,  killed  or  enslaved  the 
serfs  who  tilled  the  soil,  and  seized  the  land  to  form  rough 
settlements  of  their  own. 

1  See  Map  facing  page  40.  2  Pevensey  :  coast  of  Sussex,  Map  No.  6,  facing  page  42. 


32 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [495-520 


72.  Settlement  of  Wessex,  Essex,  and  Middlesex  (495). — 

After  Sussex  was  established  (§  70),  bands  came  over  under 
Cerdic.  They  conquered  a  territory  to  which  they  gave  the 
name  of  Wessex,  or  the  country  of  the  West  Saxons. 

About  the  same  time  other  invaders  settled  in  the  country 
north  of  the  Thames,  which  became  known  as  Essex  and  Middle¬ 
sex,  or  the  land  of  the  East  and  the  Middle  Saxons.1 

73.  Invasion  by  the  Angles  (547).  —  Finally  there  came  from 
a  little  corner  south  of  the  peninsula  of  Denmark  (a  region  which 
still  bears  the  name  of  Angeln)  a  tribe  of  Angles,  who  took 
possession  of  all  of  Eastern  Britain  not  already  appropriated. 

Eventually  they  came  to  have  control  over  the  greater  part  of 
the  land,  and  from  them  all  the  other  tribes  tocfo  the  name  of 
Angles,  or  English. 

74.  Bravery  of  the  Britons.  —  Long  before  this  last  settlement 
was  complete,  the  Britons  had  plucked  up  courage,  and  had,  to 
some  extent,  joined  forces  to  save  themselves  from  utter  exter¬ 
mination.  They  were  naturally  a  brave  people.  The  fact  that 
it  took  the  Saxons  or  English  more  than  a  hundred  years  to  get  a 
firm  hold  on  the  island  shows  that  the  Britons,  though  weakened 
by  Roman  tyranny,  fell  back  on  what  pugilists  call  their  “  second 
strength.”  They  fought  valiantly  and  gave  up  the  country  inch 
by  inch  only. 

75.  King  Arthur  checks  the  Invaders  (520).  —  If  we  may 

trust  tradition,  the  English  or  Saxons  received  their  first  decided 
check  at  Badburv,  in  Dorsetshire.'2  Here  they  were  met  by  that 
famous  Arthur,  the  legend  of  whose  deeds  has  come  down  to  us, 
retold  in  Tennyson’s  “  Idylls  of  the  King.”  He  stopped  them 
in  their  march  of  insolent  triumph.  With  his  irresistible  sword 
“  Excalibur  ”  and  his  stanch  Welsh  spearsmen,  he  seems  to  have 
proved  to  them,  at  least,  that  he  was  not  a  myth,  but  a  man 3 
able  “  to  break  the  heathen  and  uphold  the  Christ.” 

1  See  Map  No.  3,  facing  page  34,  and  Map  No.  5,  facing  page  38. 

2  See  Map  No.  5,  facing  page  40  (Mt.  Badon,  Wessex,  in  south  of  England). 

3  On  Arthur,  see  the  Dictionary  of  (English)  National  Biography,  II;  and  com¬ 
pare  Freeman’s  Old  English  History, 


520-597] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


33 


76.  The  Britons  driven  into  the  West.  —  But  though  tempo¬ 
rarily  brought  to  a  stand,  the  heathen  were  neither  to  be  expelled 
nor  driven  back.  They  had  come  to  stay. 

At  last  the  Britons  were  forced  to  take  refuge  among  the  hills 
of  Wales.  There  they  continued  to  abide  unconquered  and 
unconquerable  by  force  alone.  That  ancient  stock  never  lost 
its  love  of  liberty,  and  more  than  eleven  centuries  later  Thomas 
Jefferson  and  several  of  the  other  fifty-five  signers  of  the  Declara¬ 
tion  of  American  Independence  were  either  of  Welsh  birth  or  of 
direct  Welsh  descent. 


r  77.  Gregory  and  the  English  Slaves.  —  The  next  period,  of 
nearly  eighty  years,  until  the  coming  of  Augustine,  is  a  dreary 
record  of  constant  bloodshed.  Out  of  their  very  barbarism, 
however,  a  regenerating  influence  was  to  arise. 

I11  their  greed  for  gain,  some  of  the  English  tribes  did  not 
hesitate  to  sell  their  own  children  into  bondage.  A  number  of 
these  slaves,  exposed  in  the  Roman  forum,  attracted  the  attention, 
as  he  was  passing,  of  a  monk  named  Gregory. 

Struck  with  the  beauty  of  their  clear,  ruddy  complexions  and 
fair  hair,  he  inquired  from  what  country  they  came.  “  They  are 
Angles,”  was  the  dealer’s  answer.  “  No,  not  Angles,  but  angels,” 
answered  the  monk,  and  he  resolved  that,  should  he  ever  have 
the  power,  he  would  send  missionaries  to  convert  a  race  of  so 
much  promise.1 

78.  Coming  of  Augustine,  597. — When  Gregory  became  the 
head  of  the  Roman  Church  he  fulfilled  his  resolution,  and  sent 
Augustine  with  a  band  of  forty  monks  to  Britain.  In  597  they 
landed  on  the  very  spot  where  Hengist  and  Horsa  (§69)  had 
disembarked  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before.  Like 
Caesar  and  his  legions,  they  brought  with  them  the  power  of 
Rome.  But  this  time  that  power  came  not  as  a  force  from  with¬ 
out  to  crush  men  in  the  iron  mould  of  submission  and  uniformity, 
but  as  a  persuasive  voice  to  arouse  and  cheer  them  with  new  hope. 

Providence  had  already  prepared  the  way.  Ethelbert,  King  of 
Kent,  had  married  Bertha,  a  French  princess,  who  in  her  own 


1  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History. 


34 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  •  r597 


country  had  become  a  convert  to  Christianity.  The  Saxons,  or 
English,  at  that  time  were  wholly  pagan,  and  had,  in  all  proba¬ 
bility,  destroyed  every  vestige  of  the  faith  for  which  the  British 
martyrs  gave  their  lives. 

79.  Augustine  converts  the  King  of  Kent  and  his  People 

(597)-  —  Through  the  Queen’s  influence,  Ethelbert  was  induced 
to  receive  Augustine.  He  was  afraid,  however,  of  some  magical 
practice,  so  he  insisted  that  their  meeting  should  take  place  in 
the  open  air  and  on  the  island  of  Thanet.1 

The  historian  Bede  represents  the  monks  as  advancing  to  salute 
the  King,  holding  a  tall  silver  cross  in  their  hands  and  a  picture  of 
Christ  painted  on  an  upright  board. 

Augustine  delivered  his  message,  was  well  received,  and  invited 
to  Canterbury,  the  capital  of  Kent.  There  the  King  became  a 
convert  to  his  preaching,  and  before  the  year  had  passed  ten 
thousand  of  his  subjects  had  received  baptism ;  for  to  gain  the 
King  was  to  gain  his  tribe  as  well. 

80.  Augustine  builds  the  First  Monastery.  —  At  Canterbury 
Augustine  became  the  first  archbishop  over  the  first  cathedral. 
There,  too,  he  erected  the  first  monastery  in  which  to  train  mis¬ 
sionaries  to  carry  on  the  work  which  he  had  begun.  A  building 
is  still  in  use  for  that  purpose,  and  it  continues  to  bear  the  name 
of  the  man  who  brought  Christianity  to  that  part  of  Britain.  The 
example  of  the  ruler  of  Kent  was  not  without  its  effect  on  others. 

81.  Conversion  of  the  North. — The  North  of  England,  how¬ 
ever,  owed  its  conversion  chiefly  to  the  Irish  monks  of  an  earlier 
age.  They  had  planted  monasteries  in  Ireland  and  Scotland  from 
which  colonies  went  forth,  one  of  which  settled  at  Lindisfarne, 
in  Durham.  Cuthbert,  a  Saxon  monk  of  that  monastery  in  the 
seventh  century,  travelled  as  a  missionary  throughout  Northumbria, 
and  was  afterward  recognized  as  the  saint  of  the  North.  Through 
his  influence  that  kingdom  was  induced  to  accept  Christianity. 
Others,  too,  went  to  other  districts. 

In  one  case  an  aged  chief  arose  in  an  assembly  of  warriors  and 
said  :  “  O  king,  as  a  bird  flies  through  this  hall  in  the  winter  night, 

1  See  Map  No.  5,  facing  page  40. 


600-700] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


35 


coming  out  of  the  darkness  and  vanishing  into  it  again,  even  such 
is  our  life.  If  these  strangers  can  tell  us  aught  of  what  is  beyond, 
let  us  give  heed  to  them.” 

But  Bede  informs  us  that,  notwithstanding  their  success,  some 
of  the  new  converts  were  too  cautious  to  commit  themselves 
entirely  to  the  strange  religion.  One  king,  who  had  set  up  a 
large  altar  devoted  to  the  worship  of  Christ,  very  prudently  set 
up  a  smaller  one  at  the  other  end  of  the  hall  to  the  old  heathen 
deities,  in  order  that  he  might  make  sure  of  the  favor  of  both. 

82.  Christianity  organized  ;  Labors  of  the  Monks.  —  Gradually, 
however,  the  pagan  faith  was  dropped.  Christianity  was  largely 
organized  by  bands  of  monks  and  nuns.  Monasteries  existed  or 
were  now  established  at  Lindisfarne,1  Wearmouth,  Whitby,  and 
Jarrow  in  the  north,  and  at  Peterborough  and  St.  Albans  in  the  east. 

These  monasteries  were  educational  as  well  as  industrial  cen¬ 
tres.  Part  of  each  day  was  spent  by  the  monks  in  manual  toil, 
for  they  held  that  “  to  labor  is  to  pray.”  They  cleared  the  land, 
drained  the  bogs,  ploughed,  sowed,  and  reaped. 

Another  part  of  the  day  they  spent  in  religious  exercises,  and  a 
third  in  writing,  translating,  and  teaching. 

A  school  was  attached  to  each  monastery,  and  each  had,  besides 
its  library  of  manuscript  books,  its  room  for  the  entertainment  of 
travellers  and  pilgrims.  In  these  libraries  important  charters  and 
laws  relating  to  the  kingdom  were  preserved. 

83.  Literary  Work  of  the  Monks - It  was  at  Jarrow  that  Bede 

wrote  in  rude  Latin  the  church  history  of  England.  It  was  at 
Whitby  that  the  poet  Csedmon2  composed  his  poem  on  the  Crea¬ 
tion,  in  which,  a  thousand  years  before  Milton,  he  dealt  with 
Milton’s  theme  in  Milton’s  spirit. 

It  was  at  Peterborough  and  Canterbury  that  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle  was  probably  begun  (§  135).  It  was  not  only  the  first 
English  history,  but  the  first  English  book,  and  the  one  from  which 

1  Lindisfarne,  or  Holy  Island,  off  the  coast  of  Northumberland  (Map  No.  4,  facing 
page  38).  See  Scott’s  Marmion,  Canto  II,  9-10.  Wearmouth  and  Jarrow  are  in 
Durham,  Whitby  in  Yorkshire,  and  Peterborough  in  Northamptonshire. 

2  Caedmon  (Kadmon). 


36 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [600-787 


we  derive  much  of  our  knowledge  of  the  time  from  the  Roman 
conquest  down  to  a  period  after  the  coming  of  the  Normans. 
Later,  that  history  was  taken  up  in  the  abbeys  of  Malmesbury  and 
St.  Alban’s 1  and  continued  by  William  of  Malmesbury  and  Matthew 
Paris.  From  these  monasteries,  too,  an  influence  went  out  which 
eventually  revived  learning  throughout  Europe. 

84.  Influence  of  Christianity  on  Society.  —  But  the  work  of 
Christianity  for  good  did  not  stop  with  these  things.  The  Church 
had  an  important  social  influence.  It  took  the  side  of  the  weak, 
the  suffering,  and  the  oppressed.  Although  the  Church  itself  held 
slaves,  yet  it  shielded  the  slave  from  ill-usage.  It  secured  for  him 
Sunday  as  a  day  of  rest,  and  it  often  labored  effectually  for  his 
emancipation. 

85.  Political  Influence  of  Christianity  (664).  — More  than  this, 

Christianity  had  a  powerful  political  influence.  A  synod,  or 
council,  was  held  at  Whitby  (664)  to  decide  when  Easter  should 
be  observed. 

To  that  meeting,  w-hich  wras  presided  over  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  delegates  were  sent  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 
After  a  protracted  debate  the  synod  decided  in  favor  of  the 
Roman  custom,  and  thus  all  the  churches  were  brought  into 
agreement. 

In  this  wray,  at  a  period  w'hen  the  country  was  divided  into 
hostile  kingdoms  of  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes,  each  struggling 
fiercely  for  the  mastery,  there  was  a  spirit  of  true  religious  unity 
growing  up. 

The  bishops,  monks,  and  priests,  gathered  at  Whitby,  w'ere 
from  tribes  at  open  war  with  each  other.  But  in  that,  and 
other  conferences  which  followed,2  they  felt  that  they  had  a 
common  interest,  that  they  were  fellow-countrymen,  that  they 
were  all  members  of  the  same  Church  and  were  laboring  for 
the  same  end. 

86.  Egbert  (787). — But  during  the  next  hundred  and  fifty 
years  the  chief  indication  outside  the  Church  of  any  progress 

1  Malmesbury,  Wiltshire  ;  St.  Alban’s,  near  London. 

■  2  See  Constitutional  Summary  (Appendix),  §  4. 


787-839] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


37 


toward  consolidation  was  in  the  growing  power  of  the  kingdom 
of  Wessex. 

Egbert,  a  direct  descendant  of  Cerdic,  the  first  chief  and  King 
of  the  country,  laid  claim  to  the  throne  (787).  Another  claim¬ 
ant  arose,  who  gained  the  day,  and  Egbert,  finding  that  his  life 
was  in  danger,  fled  the  country. 

87.  Egbert  at  the  Court  of  Charlemagne  (787-800).  —  He 

escaped  to  France,  and  there  took  refuge  at  the  court  of  King 
Charlemagne,  where  he  remained  thirteen  years.  Charlemagne  had 
conceived  the  gigantic  project  of  resuscitating  the  Roman  Empire. 
To  accomplish  that,  he  had  engaged  in  a  series  of  wars,  and  so 
far  conquered  his  enemies  that  he  was  crowned  (800)  Emperor 
of  the  Romans  by  the  Pope. 

88.  Egbert  becomes  “King  of  the  English,”  828. — That 
very  year  the  King  of  Wessex  died,  and  Plgbert  was  summoned 
to  take  his  place.  He  went  back  impressed  with  the  success 
of  the  French  King  and  ambitious  to  imitate  him.  Twenty-three 
years  after  that,  we  hear  of  him  fighting  the  tribes  in  Mercia,  or 
Central  Britain. 

His  army  is  described  as  “  lean,  pale,  and  long-breathed  ”  ; 
but  with  those  cadaverous  troops  he  conquered  and  reduced  the 
Mercians  to  subjection.  Other  victories  followed,  and  in  828  he 
brought  all  the  sovereignties  of  England  into  vassalage.  He  now 
ventured  to  assume  the  title,  which  he  had  fairly  won,  of  “  King 
of  the  English.”  1  That  title  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  period 
in  the  history  of  the  island. 

89.  Britain  becomes  England.  — The  Celts  had  called  the  land 
Albion;  the  Romans,  Britain2;  the  country  now  called  itself 
Angle-Land,  or  England. 

Three  causes  had  brought  about  this  consolidation,  to  which 
each  people  had  contributed  part.  The  Jutes  of  Kent  encour¬ 
aged  the  foundation  of  the  national  Church  ;  the  Angles  gave  the 
national  name,  the  West  Saxons  furnished  the  national  king. 

\ 

1  In  a  single  charter,  dated  828,  he  calls  himself  “  Egbert,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
King  of  the  English.” 

2  Britain :  nothing  definite  is  known  of  the  origin  or  meaning  of  this  word. 


38 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


[871 


From  Egbert  as  a  royal  source,  every  subsequent  English  sover¬ 
eign  (except  the  four  Danish  kings,  Harold  II,  and  William  the 
Conqueror)  has  directly  or  indirectly  descended  down  to  the  pres¬ 
ent  time.  (See  Table  of  Royal  Descent  in  Appendix.) 

90.  Alfred  the  Great  (871-901).  —  Of  these  the  most  conspic¬ 
uous  during  the  period  of  which  we  are  writing  was  Alfred,  of 
whose  accession  we  shall  presently  speak.  He  was  a  grandson 
of  Egbert.  He  was  rightly  called  Alfred  the  Great,  since  he  was 
the  embodiment  of  whatever  was  best  and  bravest  in  the  English 
character.  The  keynote  of  his  life  may  be  found  in  the  words 
which  he  spoke  at  the  close  of  it,  “So  long  as  I  have  lived,  I 
have  striven  to  live  worthily.” 

91 .  Invasion  by  the  Danes,  or  Northmen  ( 871 ) .  —  When  Alfred 
came  to  the  throne  (871),  through  the  death  of  his  brother 
Ethelred,  the  Danes,  or  Northmen,1  were  sweeping  down  on  the 
country.  A  few  months  before  that  event  Alfred  had  aided  his 
brother  in  a  desperate  struggle  with  them. 

In  the  beginning  the  object  of  the  Danes  was  to  plunder,  later 
to  possess,  and  finally  to  rule  over  the  country.  In  the  year 
Alfred  came  to  the  throne  they  had  already  overrun  a  large  por¬ 
tion  and  invaded  Wessex.  Wherever  their  raven-flag  appeared, 
there  destruction  and  slaughter  followed. 

92.  The  Danes,  or  Northmen,  destroy  the  Monasteries.  —  The 
monasteries  were  the  especial  objects  of  their  attacks.  Since 
their  establishment  many  of  them  had  accumulated  wealth  and 
had  sunk  into  habits  of  idleness  and  luxury.  The  Danes,  without 
intending  it,  came  to  scourge  these  vices. 

From  the  thorough  way  in  which  they  robbed,  burned,  and 
murdered,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  enjoyed  what  some 
might  think  was  their  providential  mission. 

In  their  helplessness  and  terror,  the  panic-stricken  monks 
added  to  their  usual  prayers  this  fervent  petition  :  “  From  the 
fury  of  the  Northmen,  good  Lord,  deliver  us  !  ”  The  power 
raised  up  to  answer  that  supplication  was  Alfred. 

1  The  Danes,  Swedes,  and  Norwegians  went  under  the  common  name  of 
N  ortllmen. 


Christianity  was  introduced  into  North  Humberland  at  this  period  (see  §  81);  and  for  a  short  time 
Edwin,  King  of  North  Humberland,  became,  says  the  Chronicle,  “  lord  over  all  Britain,  save 
Kent  alone.” 


871-878] 


TIIE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


39 


93.  Alfred’s  Victories  over  the  Danes  ;  the  White  Horse.  — 

After  repeated  defeats  he,  with  his  brother,  finally  drove  back 
these  savage  hordes,  who  thought  it  a  shame  to  earn  by  sweat 
what  they  could  win  by  blood.  They  boasted  that  they  would 
fight  in  paradise  even  as  they  had  fought  on  earth,  and  would 
celebrate  their  victories  with  foaming  draughts  of  ale  drunk  from 
the  skulls  of  their  enemies. 

In  these  attacks  Alfred  led  one-half  the  army,  Ethelred  the 
other.  They  met  the  Danes  at  Ashdown  Ridge  in  Berkshire.1 
While  Ethelred  stopped  to  pray  for  success,  Alfred,  under  the 
banner  of  the  “White  Horse,”  —  the  common  standard  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons  at  that  time,  —  began  the  attack  and  won  the  day. 

Tradition  declares  that  after  the  victory  he  ordered  his  army 
to  commemorate  their  triumph  by  carving  that  colossal  figure  of 
a  horse  on  the  side  of  a  neighboring  chalk-hill,  which  still  remains 
so  conspicuous  an  object  in  the  landscape.  It  was  shortly  after 
this  that  Alfred  became  king ;  but  the  war,  far  from  being  ended, 
had  in  fact  but  just  begun. 

94.  The  Danes  compel  Alfred  to  retreat.  —  The  Danes,  re¬ 
inforced  by  other  invaders,  overcame  Alfred’s  forces  and  com¬ 
pelled  him  to  retreat.  He  fled  to  the  wilds  of  Somersetshire,  and 
was  glad  to  take  up  his  abode  for  a  time,  so  the  story  runs, 
in  a  peasant’s  hut.  Subsequently  he  succeeded  in  rallying  part  of 
his  people,  and  built  a  stronghold  on  a  piece  of  rising  ground,  in 
the  midst  of  an  almost  impassable  morass.  There  he  remained 
during  the  winter. 

95.  Great  Victory  by  Alfred;  Treaty  of  Wedmore  (878). — 

In  the  spring  he  marched  forth  and  again  attacked  the  Danes. 
They  were  entrenched  in  a  camp  at  Edington,  Wiltshire.  Alfred 
surrounded  them,  and  starved  them  into  complete  submission. 
Guthrum,  the  Danish  leader,  swore  a  peace,  called  the  Peace  or 
Treaty  of  Wedmore.2  He  sealed  the  oath  with  his  baptism, — an  ad¬ 
mission  that  Alfred  had  not  only  beaten,  but  converted  him  as  well. 

1  See  Map  No.  5,  facing  page  40.  Ashdown  is  west  of  London. 

2  See  Map  No.  6,  facing  page  42.  Wedmore  (the  Wet  Moor)  is  in  Wessex 
(Somersetshire),  in  the  southwest  of  England. 


40 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [878-901 

96.  Terms  of  the  Treaty.  —  By  the  Treaty  of  Wedmore  (878) 
the  Danes  bound  themselves  to  remain  north  and  east  of  a  line 
drawn  from  London  to  Chester,  following  the  old  Roman  road 
called  Watling  Street.  All  south  of  this  line,  including  a  district 
around  London,  was  recognized  as  the  dominions  of  Alfred,  whose 
chief  city,  or  capital,  was  Winchester. 

By  this  treaty  the  Danes  got  much  the  larger  part  of  England, 
but  they  acknowledged  Alfred  as  their  overlord.  He  thus  be¬ 
came  nominally  what  his  predecessor,  Egbert  (§  88),  had  claimed 
to  be, —  the  King  of  the  whole  country.1 

97.  Alfred’s  Laws  ;  his  Translations.  —  He  proved  himself  to 
be  more  than  mere  ruler ;  for  he  was  law-giver  and  teacher  as 
well.  Through  his  efforts  a  written  code  was  compiled,  prefaced 
by  the  Ten  Commandments  and  ending  with  the  Golden  Rule. 
Alfred  added,  referring  to  the  introduction,  “  He  who  keeps  this 
shall  not  need  any  other  law-book.” 

Next,  that  learning  might  not  utterly  perish  in  the  ashes  of  the 
abbeys  and  monasteries  which  the  Danes  had  destroyed,  the  King, 
though  feeble  and  suffering,  set  himself  to  translate  from  the 
Latin  the  Universal  History  of  Orosius,  and  also  Bede’s  History 
of  England.  He  afterward  rendered  into  English  the  Reflec¬ 
tions  of  the  Roman  Senator  Boethius  on  the  Supreme  Good, 
an  inquiry  written  by  the  latter  while  in  prison,  under  sentence 
of  death. 

98.  Alfred’s  Navy.  —  Alfred,  however,  still  had  to  combat  the 
Danes,  who  continued  to  make  descents  upon  the  coast,  and  even 
sailed  up  the  Thames  to  take  London.  He  constructed  a  superior 
class  of  fast-sailing  war-vessels  from  designs  made  by  himself. 
With  this  fleet,  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  beginning  of  the 
English  navy,  he  fought  the  enemy  on  their  own  element.  He 
thus  effectually  checked  a  series  of  invasions  which,  had  they 
continued,  might  have  eventually  reduced  the  country  to  primi¬ 
tive  barbarism. 

99.  Estimate  of  Alfred’s  Reign.  —  Considered  as  a  whole, 
Alfred’s  reign  is  the  most  noteworthy  of  any  in  the  annals  of  the 

1,  Map  opposite  shows  Alfred’s  later  kingdom ;  that  facing  page  42  shows 
Watling  St. 


ENGLAND 

AFTER 

TREATY  OF  WEDMOBE 
878 


i&S^winsburgh 
X&lMu  rgh)^ 


4  UNOlSf  ARNE 


\R.Tyne 


li-hanii 


'rti.U'i'oV'i 


nor^: 


- 


Lichfii 

r^uf 


Cro«tiv.< 


►Gloucester! 


Burfori; 


.Dcortfaor  *7>/  V 

Chippenham  •AahdoVtf 

Stonehcng?~'N^^ 


| .OF  THANET 


Bristol  Chun11' 


ilastonbury 


Lthcliu 


'inches! 


Hastings 


Mt.Badon 
rfe  Castle^ 


’l.OF  WIGHT 


901-975] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


41 


early  English  sovereigns.  It  was  marked  throughout  by  intelli¬ 
gence  and  progress. 

His  life  speaks  for  itself.  The  best  commentary  on  it  is  the 
fact  that,  in  1849,  the  people  of  Wantage,1  his  native  place,  cele¬ 
brated  the  thousandth  anniversary  of  his  birth,  —  another  proof 
that  “what  is  excellent,  as  God  lives,  is  permanent.”  2 

100.  Dunstan’s  Reforms.  —  Two  generations  after  Alfred’s 
death  Dunstan,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  came  forward  to  take 
up  and  push  onward  the  work  begun  by  the  great  King.  He  was 
the  ablest  man  in  an  age  when  all  statesmen  were  ecclesiastics. 
He  labored  for  higher  education,  for  strict  monastic  rule,  and  for 
the  celibacy  of  the  monks. 

101.  Regular  and  Secular  Clergy.  —  At  that  time  the  clergy 
of  England  were  divided  into  two  classes,  —  the  “regulars,”  or 
monks,  and  the  “  seculars,”  or  parish  priests  and  other  clergy  not 
bound  by  monastic  vows. 

The  former  lived  in  the  monasteries  apart  from  the  world  ;  the 
latter  lived  in  it.  By  their  monastic  vows 3  the  “  regulars  ”  were 
bound  to  remain  unmarried,  while  the  “  seculars  ”  were  not. 

Notwithstanding  Alfred’s  efforts  at  reform,  many  monasteries 
had  relaxed  their  rules  and  were  again  filled  with  drones.  In 
violation  of  their  vows  of  celibacy,  large  numbers  of  the  monks 
were  married.  Furthermore,  many  new  churches  had  been 
endowed  and  put  into  the  hands  of  the  “  seculars.” 

102.  Danger  to  the  State  from  Each  Class  of  Clergy. — The 
danger  was  that  this  laxity  would  go  on  increasing,  so  that  in  time 
the  married  clergy  would  monopolize  the  clerical  influence  and 
clerical  wealth  of  the  kingdom  for  themselves  and  their  families. 

They  would  thus  become  an  hereditary  body,  a  close  corpora¬ 
tion,  transmitting  their  power  and  possessions  from  father  to  son 
through  generations. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  tendency  of  the  unmarried  clergy 

1  Wantage  (west  of  London),  Berkshire.  See  Map  No.  6,  facing  page  42. 

2  R.  W.  Emerson’s  Poems. 

3  The  monastic  vows  required  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience  to  the  rules  of 

their  order. 


42 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [975-992 


would  be  to  become  wholly  subservient  to  the  Church  and  the 
Pope,  though  they  must  necessarily  recruit  their  ranks  from  the 
people. 

In  this  last  respect  they  would  be  more  democratic  than  the 
opposite  class.  They  would  also  be  more  directly  connected  with 
national  interests  and  the  national  life,  while  at  the  same  time 
they  would  be  able  to  devote  themselves  more  exclusively  to  study 
and  to  intellectual  culture  than  the  “  seculars.” 

103.  Dunstan  as  a  Statesman  and  Artisan.  —  In  addition  to 
these  reforms,  Dunstan  (§  100)  proved  himself  to  be  as  clever  a 
statesman  as  theologian.  He  undertook,  with  temporary  success, 
to  reconcile  the  conflicting  interests  of  the  Danes  and  the  English. 
He  was  also  noted  as  a  mechanic  and  worker  in  metals.  The 
common  people  regarded  his  accomplishments  in  this  direction 
with  superstitious  awe. 

Many  stories  of  his  skill  were  circulated,  and  it  was  even 
whispered  that  in  a  personal  contest  with  Beelzebub,  it  was  the 
devil  and  not  the  monk  who  got  the  worst  of  it  and  fled  from  the 
saint’s  workshop,  howling  with  dismay. 

104.  New  Invasions;  Danegeld  (992).  —  With  the  close  of 
Dunstan’s  career,  the  period  of  decline  sets  in.  Fresh  inroads 
began  on  the  part  of  the  Northmen  (§  91).  The  resistance  to 
them  became  feeble  and  faint-hearted.  At  last  a  royal  tax, 
called  Danegeld,  or  Dane-money  (992),  was  levied  on  all  landed 
property  in  order  to  raise  means  to  buy  off  the  invaders.  For  a 
brief  period  this  cowardly  concession  answered  the  purpose.  But 
a  time  came  when  the  Danes  would  no  longer  be  bribed  to 
keep  away. 

105.  The  Northmen  invade  France.  — The  Danish  invasion  was 
really  a  part  of  a  great  European  movement.  The  same  North¬ 
men  who  had  obtained  so  large  a  part  of  England  had  also,  in 
the  tenth  century,  under  the  leadership  of  Rollo,  established  them¬ 
selves  in  France. 

There  they  were  known  as  Normans,  a  softened  form  of  the 
word  “  Northmen,”  and  the  district  where  they  settled  came  to 
be'called  from  them  Normandy.  They  founded  a  line  of  dukes, 


1013-1035]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


43 


or  princes,  who  were  destined,  in  the  course  of  the  next  century, 
to  give  a  new  aspect  to  the  events  of  English  history. 

106.  Sweyn  conquers  England  ;  Canute1  (1017-1035).  —  Sweyn, 
the  Dane,  conquered  England  (1013),  and  “all  the  people,”  says 
the  Chronicle,  “  held  him  for  full  king.”  He  was  succeeded  by 
his  son  Canute  (1017).  He  was  from  beyond  the  sea,  but  could 
hardly  be  called  a  foreigner,  since  he  spoke  a  language  and  set  up 
a  government  differing  but  little  from  that  of  the  English. 

After  his  first  harsh  measures  were  over  he  sought  the  friend¬ 
ship  of  both  Church  and  people.  He  gave  the  country  peace. 
He  rebuked  the  flattery  of  courtiers  by  showing  them  that  the 
in-rolling  tide  is  no  respecter  of  persons ;  he  endeavored  to 
rule  justly,  and  his  liking  for  the  monks  found  expression  in 
his  song :  — 

“  Merrily  sang  the  monks  of  Ely 
As  Cnut  the  King  was  passing  by.” 

107.  Canute’s  Plan  ;  the  Four  Earldoms.  — Canute’s  plan  was 
to  establish  a  great  northern  empire  embracing  Denmark,  Norway, 
Sweden,  and  England.  To  facilitate  the  government  of  so  large 
a  realm,  he  divided  England  into  four  districts,  Wessex,  Mercia, 
East  Anglia,  and  Northumbria,  which,  with  their  dependencies, 
embraced  the  entire  country. 

Each  of  these  districts  was  ruled  by  an  earl 2  invested  with 
almost  royal  power.  For  a  time  the  arrangement  worked  well, 
but  eventually  discord  sprang  up  between  the  rulers.  Their  indi¬ 
vidual  ambition  and  their  efforts  to  obtain  supreme  authority 
imperilled  the  unity  of  the  country. 

108.  Prince  Edward.  —  On  the  accession  of  the  Danish  con¬ 
queror  Sweyn  (§106),  Ethelred  II,  the  Saxon  King,  sent  his  French 
wife  Emma  back  to  Normandy  for  safety.  She  took  with  her  her 
son,  Prince  Edward,  then  a  lad  of  nine.  He  remained  at  the 
French  court  nearly  thirty  years,  and  among  other  friends  to  whom 

1  Also  spelled  Cnut  and  Knut. 

2  Earl  (“  chief  ”  or  “  leader  ”) :  a  title  of  honor  and  of  office.  The  four  earldoms 
established  by  Canute  remained  nearly  unchanged  until  the  Norman  Conquest,  1066. 
See  Map  No.  6,  facing  page  42. 


44  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1042-1066 


he  became  greatly  attached  was  his  second  cousin,  William,  Duke 
of  Normandy. 

109.  Restoration  of  the  English  Kings;  Edward  the  Confessor 
(1042-1066).  —  The  oppressive  acts  of  Canute’s  sons  excited 
insurrection  (1042),  and  both  Danes  and  Saxons  joined  in  the 
determination  to  restore  the  Saxon  line.  Edward  was  invited  to 
accept  the  crown.  He  returned  to  England  and  obtained  the 
throne.  By  birth  he  was  already  half  Norman  ;  by  education 
and  tastes  he  was  wholly  so. 

It  is  very  doubtful  whether  he  could  speak  a  word  of  English, 
and  it  is  certain  that  from  the  beginning  he  surrounded  himself 
with  French  favorites,  and  filled  the  Church  with  French  priests. 
Edward’s  piety  and  blameless  life  gained  for  him  the  title  of  “  the 
Confessor,”  or,  as  w'e  should  say  to-day,  “  the  Christian.” 

He  married  the  daughter  of'  Godwin,  Earl  of  Wessex,  the  most 
powerful  noble  in  England.  Godwin  really  ruled  the  country  in 
the  King’s  name  until  his  death  (1053),  when  his  son  Harold 
succeeded  him  as  earl.  The  latter  continued  to  exercise  his 
father’s  influence  to  counteract  the  French. 

no.  Edward  builds  Westminster  Abbey.  —  During  a  large 
part  of  his  reign  Edward  was  engaged  in  building  an  abbey  at 
the  west  end  of  London,  and  hence  called  the  West-minster.1 
He  had  just  completed  and  consecrated  this  great  work  when 
he  died,  and  was  buried  there.  We  may  still  see  a  part  of  his 
building  in  the  crypt  or  basement  of  the  abbey,  while  the  King’s 
tomb  above  is  the  centre  around  which  lies  a  circle  of  royal 
graves. 

To  it  multitudes  made  pilgrimage  in  the  olden  time,'  and  once 
every  year  a  little  band  of  devoted  Roman  Catholics  still  gather 
about  it  in  veneration  of  virtues  that  would  have  adorned  a  mon¬ 
astery,  but  had  not  breadth  and  vigor  to  fill  a  throne. 

With  Edward,  save  for  the  short  interlude  of  Harold,  the  last 
of  the  Saxon  kings  and  the  “  ablest  man  of  an  unprogressive 
race,”  the  period  closes. 

1  Minster  :  a  name  given  originally  to  a  monastery ;  next,  to  a  church  connected 
with  a  monastery ;  but  now  applied  to  several  large  English  cathedrals. 


WHITE  HORSE  HILL,  BERKSHhRE 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


45 


1066] 

-  III.  Harold  becomes  King  (1066).  —  On  his  death-bed,  Edward, 
who  had  no  children,  recommended  Harold,  Earl  of  Wessex,  as 
his  successor.  But,  according  to  the  Normans,  he  had  promised 
that  their  Duke  William,  who  was  his  second  cousin  (§  108), 
should  reign  after  him.  The  Witan,1  or  National  Council  ( §  §  1 1 6- 
1 18),  chose  Harold,  who  was  soon  afterward  crowned  (Jan.  16, 
xo66). 

1 12.  What  the  Saxon  Conquest  did  for  Britain.  —  Jutes,  Saxons, 
and  Angles  (§§  69-73)  invaded  Britain  at  a  critical  period.  Its 
original  inhabitants  had  become  cowed  and  enervated  by  the 
despotism  and  the  worn-out  civilization  forced  on  them  by  the 
Romans  (§§59-62). 

The  new-comers  brought  that  healthy  spirit  of  barbarism,  that 
irrepressible  love  of  personal  liberty,  which  the  country  stood  most 
in  need  of.  The  conquerors  were  rough,  ignorant,  cruel ;  but 
they  were  fearless  and  determined. 

These  qualities  were  worth  a  thousand  times  more  to  Britain 
than  the  gilded  corruption  of  Rome.  In  time  the  English  them¬ 
selves  had  lost  spirit.  Their  besetting  sin  was  a  stolidity  which 
degenerated  into  animalism  and  sluggish  content. 

1 13.  Elements  contributed  by  the  Danes,  or  Northmen.  — Then 
came  the  Danes  (§§  91-106).  They  brought  with  them  that  new 
spirit  of  still  more  savage  independence  which  so  well  expressed 
itself  in  their  song,  “  I  trust  my  sword,  I  trust  my  steed,  but  most 
I  trust  myself  at  need.” 

They  conquered  the  land,  and  in  conquering  regenerated  it. 
So  strong  was  their  love  of  independence,  that  even  the  peasants 
were  quite  generally  free. 

More  small  independent  landholders  were  found  among  the 
Danish  population  than  anywhere  else ;  and  it  is  said  that  the 
number  now  existing  in  the  region  they  settled  is  still  much  larger 
than  in  the  south.  Finally  the  Danes  and  English,  both  of  whom 
sprang  from  the  same  parent  stock,  mingled  and  became  in  all 
respects  one  people. 

1  Witan  :  literally  the  “  Wise-men,”  the  chief  men  of  the  realm  ;  see,  too,  Constitu¬ 
tional  Summary  in  Appendix,  page  ii,  §  3. 


4  6 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


[1066 


1 14.  Summary:  What  the  Anglo-Saxons  accomplished. — 

Thus  Jutes,  Saxons,  Angles,  and  Danes,  whom  together  we  may 
call  the  Anglo-Saxons,1  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the  English  nation. 
However  much  it  has  changed  since,  it  remains,  nevertheless,  in 
its  solid  and  fundamental  qualities,  what  these  peoples  made  it. 

They  gave  first  the  language,  simple,  strong,  direct,  and  plain, 
—  the  familiar,  every-day  speech  of  the  fireside  and  the  street, 
the  well-known  words  of  both  the  newspaper  and  the  Bible. 

Next  they  established  the  government  in  its  main  outlines  as 
it  still  exists ;  that  is,  a  king,  a  legislative  body  representing  the 
people,  and  the  germ,  at  least,  of  a  judicial  system  embodying 
trial  by  jury  ( §  125). 

Last,  and  best,  they  furnished  conservative  patience,  calm, 
steady,  persistent  effort,  indomitable  tenacity  of  purpose,  and 
cool,  determined  courage.  These  qualities  have  won  glorious 
battle-fields  on  both  sides  the  Atlantic,  both  in  peace  and  war, 
and  who  can  doubt  that  they  are  destined  to  win  still  greater 
victories  in  the  future  ? 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  SAXON,  OR  EARLY  ENGLISH,  PERIOD 

(449-1066)  2 

I.  GOVERNMENT. —  II.  RELIGION.  —  1 1 1 .  MILITARY  AFFAIRS. - 

IV.  LITERATURE,  LEARNING,  AND  ART. - V.  GENERAL  INDUS¬ 
TRY  AND  COMMERCE. - VI.  MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND 

CUSTOMS. 

GOVERNMENT 

1 15.  Beginning  of  the  English  Monarchy.  —  During  the  greater 
part  of  the  first  four  centuries  after  the  Saxon  conquest  Britain  was 
divided  into  a  number  of  tribal  settlements,  or  petty  kingdoms,  held 

1  Anglo-Saxons :  some  authorities  insist  that  this  phrase  means  the  Saxons  of 
England  in  distinction  from  those  of  the  continent.  It  is  used  here,  however,  in  the 
sense  given  by  Mr.  Freeman  as  a  term  describing  the  people  formed  in  England  by 
the  union  of  all  the  Germanic  tribes. 

2  This  section  contains  a  summary  of  much  of  the  preceding  period,  with  consid¬ 
erable  additional  matter.  It  is  believed  that  it  will  be  found  useful  both  for  review 
and  for  reference.  When  a  continuous  narrative  history  is  desired,  this,  and  similar 
sections  following,  may  be  omitted. 


449-i°66] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


47 


by  Jutes,  Angles,  and  Saxons,  constantly  at  war  with  each  other. 
In  the  ninth  century,  the  West  Saxons,  or  inhabitants  of  Wessex, 
succeeded,  under  the  leadership  of  Egbert,  in  practically  conquering 
and  uniting  the  country.  Egbert  now  assumed  the  title  of  “  King  of 
the  English,”  and  Britain  came  to  be  known,  from  the  name  of  its 
largest  division,  as  Angle-Land,  or  England.  Later  the  Danes  ob¬ 
tained  possession  of  a  large  part  of  the  country,  but  eventually  united 
with  the  English  and  became  one  people. 

116.  The  King  and  the  Witan.  —  The  government  of  England 
was  vested  in  an  elective  sovereign,  assisted  by  the  council  of  the 
Witan,  or  Wise  Men.  It  is  an  open  question  whether  every  free¬ 
man  had  the  right  to  attend  this  national  council,1  but,  in  practice, 
the  right  became  confined  to  a  small  number  of  the  nobles  and 
clergy. 

117.  What  the  Witan  could  do. —  1.  The  Witan  elected  the  King 
(its  choice  being  confined,  as  a  rule,  to  the  royal  family).  2.  In  case 
of  misgovernment,  it  deposed  him.  3.  It  made  or  confirmed  grants 
of  public  lands.  4.  It  acted  as  a  supreme  court  of  justice  both  in 
civil  and  criminal  cases.  (See  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix, 
page  ii,  §  3.) 

118.  What  the  King  and  Witan  could  do.  —  1.  They  enacted 
the  laws,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical.  (In  most  cases  this  meant 
nothing  more  than  stating  what  the  custom  was,  the  common  law 
being  merely  the  common  custom.)  2.  They  levied  taxes.  3.  They 
declared  war  and  made  peace.  4.  They  appointed  the  chief  officers 
and  bishops  of  the  realm. 

1 19.  Land  Tenure  before  the  Conquest.  —  Before  they  invaded 
Britain  the  Saxons  and  kindred  tribes  appear  to  have  held  their 
estates  in  common.  Each  had  a  permanent  homestead,  but  that  was 
all.2  “No  one,”  says  Caesar,  “  has  a  fixed  quantity  of  land  or  bound¬ 
aries  to  his  property.  The  magistrates  and  chiefs  assign  every  year 
to  the  families  and  communities  who  live  together,  as  much  land  and 
in  such  spots  as  they  think  suitable.  The  following  year  they  require 
them  to  take  up  another  allotment. 

“  The  chief  glory  of  the  tribes  is  to  have  their  territory  surrounded 
with  as  wide  a  belt  as  possible  of  waste  land.  They  deem  it  not  only 

1  Stubbs  and  Freeman  take  opposite  views  on  this  point. 

2  Tacitus  (Germania)  says  that  each  house  “was  surrounded  by  a  space  of 

its  own.” 


48  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [449-1066 


a  special  mark  of  valor  that  every  neighboring  tribe  should  be  driven 
to  a  distance,  and  that  no  stranger  should  dare  to  reside  in  their 
vicinity,  but  at  the  same  time  they  regaid  it  as  a  precautionary 
measure  against  sudden  attacks.”1 

120.  Folkland.  —  Each  tribe,  in  forming  its  settlement,  seized 
more  land  than  it  actually  needed.  This  excess  was  known  as  Folk- 
land  (the  People’s  land),2  and  might  be  used  by  all  alike  for  pastur¬ 
ing  cattle  or  cutting  wood.  With  the  consent  of  the  Witan,  the  King 
might  grant  portions  of  this  Folkland  as  a  reward  for  services  done 
to  himself  or  to  the  community.  Such  grants  were  usually  condi¬ 
tional  and  could  only  be  made  for  a  time.  Eventually  they  returned 
to  the  community. 

Other  grants,  however,  might  be  made  in  the  same  way,  which 
conferred  full  ownership.  Such  grants  were  called  Bocland  (Book 
land),  because  conveyed  by  writing,  or  registered  in  a  charter  or 
book.  In  time  the  King  obtained  the  power  of  making  these  grants 
without  having  to  consult  the  Witan,  and  at  last  the  whole  of  the 
Folkland  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  absolute  property  of  the  Crown. 

121.  Duties  of  Freemen.  —  Every  freeman  was  obliged  to  do 
three  things:  1.  He  must  assist  in  the  maintenance  of  roads  and 
bridges.  2.  He  must  aid  in  the  repair  of  forts.  3.  He  must  serve 
in  case  of  war.  Whoever  neglected  or  refused  to  perform  this  last 
and  most  important  of  all  duties  was  declared  to  be  a  Nit  king,  or 
infamous  coward.3 

122.  The  Feudal  System  (see,  too,  Constitutional  Summary  in 
Appendix,  page  iii,  §5). —  In  addition  to  the  Eorls  (earls)4  or 
nobles  by  birth,  there  gradually  grew  up  a  class  known  as  Thanes 
(companions  or  servants  of  the  King),  who  in  time  outranked  the 

1  Csesar,  Gallic  War,  Book  VI. 

2  But  some  recent  authorities  regard  it  as  family  land. 

8  Also  written  Niding.  The  English,  as  a  rule,  were  more  afraid  of  this  name 
than  of  death  itself. 

4  The  Saxons,  or  Early  English,  were  divided  into  three  classes:  Eorls  (they 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  Danish  jarls  or  earls),  who  were  noble  by  birth  ; 
Ceorls  (churls),  or  simple  freemen,  and  slaves.  The  slaves  were  either  the  absolute 
property  of  the  master,  or  were  bound  to  the  soil  and  sold  with  it.  This  latter  class, 
under  the  Norman  name  of  villeins,  became  numerous  after  the  Norman  Conquest 
in  the  eleventh  century.  The  chieftains  of  the  first  Saxon  settlers  were  called  either 
Ealdormen  (aldermen)  or  Heretogas,  the  first  being  civil  or  magisterial,  the  latter 
military  officers.  The  Thanes  were  a  later  class,  who,  from  serving  the  King  or  some 
powerful  leader,  became  noble  by  military  service. 


449-1°66] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


49 


hereditary  nobility.  To  both  these  classes  the  King  would  have 
occasion  to  give  rewards  for  faithful  service  and  for  deeds  of  valor. 
As  his  chief  wealth  consisted  in  land,  he  would  naturally  give  that. 
To  this  gift,  however,  a  condition  was  attached.  On  making  such 
a  grant  the  King  required  the  receiver  to  agree  to  furnish  a  certain 
number  of  fully  equipped  soldiers  to  fight  for  him.  These  grants 
were  originally  made  for  life  only,  and  on  the  death  of  the  recipient 
they  returned  to  the  Crown. 

The  nobles  and  other  great  landholders,  following  the  example  of 
the  King,  granted  portions  of  their  estates  to  tenants  on  similar  con¬ 
ditions,  and  these  again  might  grant  portions  to  those  below  them  in 
return  for  satisfactory  military  or  other  service. 

In  time  it  came  to  be  an  established  principle,  that  every  freeman 
below  the  rank  of  a  noble  must  be  attached  to  some  superior  whom 
he  was  bound  to  serve,  and  who,  on  the  other  hand,  was  his  legal 
protector  and  responsible  for  his  good  behavior.  The  lordless  man 
was,  in  fact,  a  kind  of  outlaw,  and  might  be  seized  like  a  robber.  In 
that  respect,  therefore,  he  would  be  worse  off  than  the  slave,  who  had  a 
master  to  whom  he  was  accountable  and  who  was  accountable  for  him. 

Eventually  it  became  common  for  the  small  landholders,  espe¬ 
cially  during  the  Danish  invasions,  to  seek  the  protection  of  some 
neighboring  lord  who  had  a  large  band  of  followers  at  his  command. 
In  such  cases  the  freeman  gave  up  his  land  and  received  it  again 
on  certain  conditions.  The  usual  form  was  for  him  to  kneel  and, 
placing  his  hands  within  those  of  the  lord,  to  swear  an  oath  of 
homage,  saying,  “  I  become  your  man  for  the  lands  which  I  hold  of 
you,  and  I  will  be  faithful  to  you  against  all  men,  saving  only  the 
service  which  I  owe  to  my  lord  the  King.”  On  his  side  the  lord 
solemnly  promised  to  defend  his  tenant  or  vassal  in  the  possession  of 
his  property,  for  which  he  was  to  perform  some  service  to  the  lord. 

In  these  two  ways,  first,  by  grant  of  lands  from  the  King  or  a 
superior,  and,  secondly,  by  the  act  of  homage  (known  as  commenda¬ 
tion),  the  feudal  system  (a  name  derived  from  feodum ,  meaning  land 
or  property)  grew  up  in  England.  Its  growth,  however,  was  irregu¬ 
lar  and  incomplete  ;  and  it  should  be  distinctly  understood  that  it 
was  not  until  after  the  Norman  Conquest  in  the  eleventh  century 
that  it  became  fully  established. 

123.  Advantages  of  Feudalism.  —  This  system  had  at  that  time 
many  advantages.  1.  The  old  method  of  holding  land  in  common 


50 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [449-1066 


was  a  wasteful  one,  since  the  way  in  which  the  possessor  of  a  field 
might  cultivate  it  would  perhaps  spoil  it  for  the  one  who  received  it 
at  the  next  allotment.  2.  In  an  age  of  constant  warfare,  feudalism 
protected  all  classes  better  than  if  they  had  stood  apart,  and  it 
enabled  the  King  to  raise  a  powerful  and  well-armed  force  in  the 
easiest  and  quickest  manner.  3.  It  cultivated  two  important  virtues, 
—  fidelity  on  the  part  of  the  vassal,  protection  on  that  of  the  lord. 
Its  corner-stone  was  the  faithfulness  of  man  to  man.  Society  has 
outgrown  feudalism,  which  like  every  system  had  its  dark  side,  but 
it  can  never  outgrow  the  feudal  principle. 

124.  Political  Divisions  ;  the  Sheriff.  —  Politically  the  kingdom 
was  divided  into  townships,  hundreds  (districts  furnishing  a  hun¬ 
dred  warriors,  or  supporting  a  hundred  families),  and  shires  or 
counties,  the  shire  having  been  originally,  in  some  cases,  the  section 
settled  by  an  independent  tribe,  as  Sussex,  Essex,  etc. 

In  each  shire  the  King  had  an  officer,  called  a  shire-reeve  or 
sheriff,1  who  represented  him,  collected  the  taxes  due  the  Crown, 
and  saw  to  the  execution  of  the  laws.  In  like  manner,  the  town  and 
the  hundred  had  a  head-man  of  its  own  choosing  to  see  to  matters 
of  general  interest. 

125.  The  Courts.  —  As  the  nation  had  its  assembly  of  wise  men 
acting  as  a  high  court,  so  each  shire,  hundred,  and  town  had  its  court, 
which  all  freemen  might  attend.  There,  without  any  special  judge, 
jury,  or  lawyers,  cases  of  all  kinds  were  tried  and  settled  by  the  voice 
of  the  entire  body,  who  were  both  judge  and  jury  in  themselves. 

126.  Methods  of  Procedure;  Compurgation. —  In  these  courts 
there  were  two  methods  of  procedure  :  first,  the  accused  might 
clear  himself  of  the  charge  brought  against  him  by  compurgation  2 3 ; 
that  is,  by  swearing  that  he  was  not  guilty  and  getting  a  number  of 
reputable  neighbors  to  swear  that  they  believed  his  oath. 

If  their  oaths  were  not  satisfactory,  witnesses  might  be  brought  to 
swear  to  some  particular  fact.  In  every  case  the  value  of  the  oath 
was  graduated  according  to  the  rank  of  the  person,  that  of  a  man  of 
high  rank  being  worth  as  much  as  that  of  twelve  common  men. 

127.  The  Ordeal.  —  If  the  accused  could  not  clear  himself  in  this 
way,  he  was  obliged  to  submit  to  the  ordeal.’  This  usually  consisted 

1  Reeve:  a  man  in  authority,  or  having  charge  of  something. 

2  Compurgation  :  the  act  of  wholly  purifying  or  clearing  a  person  from  guilt. 

3  Ordeal :  judgment. 


449-i°66] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


51 


in  carrying  a  piece  of  hot  iron  a  certain  distance,  or  in  plunging  the 
arm  up  to  the  elbow  in  boiling  water. 

The  person  who  underwent  the  ordeal  appealed  to  God  to  prove 
his  innocence  by  protecting  him  from  harm.  Rude  as  both  these 
methods  were,  they  were  better  than  the  old  tribal  method,  which 
permitted  every  man  or  every  man’s  family  to  be  the  avenger  of  his 
wrongs. 

128.  The  Common  Law.  —  The  laws  by  which  these  cases  were 
tried  were  almost  always  ancient  customs,  few  of  which  had  been 
reduced  to  writing.  They  formed  that  body  of  common  law  1  which 
is  the  foundation  of  the  modern  system  of  justice  both  in  England 
and  America. 

129.  Penalties.  —  The  penalties  inflicted  by  these  courts  consisted 
chiefly  of  fines.  Each  man’s  life  had  a  certain  pecuniary  value. 
The  punishment  for  the  murder  of  a  man  of  very  high  rank  was  2400 
shillings  ;  that  of  a  simple  freeman  was  only  one-twelfth  as  much. 

A  slave  could  neither  testify  in  court  nor  be  punished  by  the  court ; 
for  the  man  in  that  day  who  held  no  land  had  no  rights.  If  a  slave 
was  convicted  of  crime,  his  master  paid  the  fine  and  then  took  what 
he  considered  an  equivalent  with  the  lash.  Treason  was  punished 
with  death,  and  common  scolds  were  ducked  in  a  pond  until  they 
were  glad  to  hold  their  tongues. 


RELIGION 


130.  The  Ancient  Saxon  Faith.  —  Before  their  conversion  to 
Christianity,  the  Saxons  worshipped  Woden  and  Thor,  names  pre¬ 
served  in  Wednesday  (Woden’s  day)  and  Thursday  (Thor’s  day). 
The  first  appears  to  have  been  considered  the  creator  and  ruler  of 
heaven  and  earth  ;  the  second  was  his  son,  the  god  of  thunder,  slayer 
of  evil  spirits,  and  friend  of  man. 

The  essential  element  of  their  religion  was  the  deification  of 
strength,  courage,  and  fortitude.  It  was  a  faith  well  suited  to  a  war¬ 
like  people.  It  taught  that  there  was  a  heaven  for  the  brave  and  a 
hell  for  cowards. 

131.  What  Christianity  did.  —  Christianity,  on  the  contrary,  laid 
emphasis  on  the  virtues  of  self-sacrifice  and  sympathy.  It  took  the 
side  of  the  weak  and  the  helpless.  The  church  itself  held  slaves,  yet 

1  So  called,  in  distinction  from  the  later  statute  laws  made  by  Parliament  and 
other  legislative  bodies. 


52 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [449-1066 


it  labored  for  emancipation.  It  built  monasteries  and  encouraged 
industry  and  education.  The  church  edifice  was  a  kind  of  open  Bible. 

Very  few  who  entered  it  could  spell  out  a  single  word  of  either 
Old  or  New  Testament,  but  all,  from  the  poorest  peasant  or  meanest 
slave  up  to  the  greatest  noble,  could  read  the  meaning  of  the  Scripture 
histories  painted  on  wall  and  window. 

The  church,  furthermore,  was  a  peculiarly  sacred  place.  It  was 
powerful  to  shield  those  who  were  in  danger.  If  a  criminal,  or  a 
person  fleeing  from  vengeance,  took  refuge  in  it,  he  could  not  be 
seized  until  forty  days  had  expired,  during  which  time  he  had  the 
privilege  of  leaving  the  kingdom  and  going  into  exile. 

This  “  right  of  sanctuary  ”  was  often  a  needful  protection  in  an 
age  of  violence.  It  became,  however,  in  time,  an  intolerable  nui¬ 
sance,  since  it  enabled  robbers  and  desperadoes  of  all  kinds  to  defy 
the  law.  The  right  was  modified  at  different  times,  but  was  not 
wholly  abolished  until  1624,  in  the  reign  of  James  I. 

MILITARY  AFFAIRS 

132.  The  Army.  —  The  army  consisted  of  a  national  and  a  feudal 
militia.  From  the  earliest  times  all  freemen  were  obliged  to  fight  in 
the  defence  of  the  country.  Under  the  feudal  system,  every  large 
landholder  had  to  furnish  the  King  a  stipulated  number  of  men,  fully 
equipped  with  armor  and  weapons.  As  this  method  was  founci  more 
effective  than  the  first,  it  gradually  superseded  it. 

The  Saxons  always  fought  on  foot.  They  wore  helmets  and  rude, 
flexible  armor,  formed  of  iron  rings,  or  of  stout  leather  covered  with 
small  plates  of  iron  and  other  substances.  They  carried  oval-shaped 
shields.  Their  chief  weapons  were  the  spear,  javelin,  battle-axe,  and 
sword.  The  wars  of  this  period  were  those  of  the  different  tribes 
seeking  supremacy,  or  of  the  English  with  the  Danes. 

133.  The  Navy.  —  Until  Alfred’s  reign  the  English  had  no  navy. 
From  that  period  they  maintained  a  fleet  of  small  war-ships  to  pro¬ 
tect  the  coast  from  invasion.  Most  of  these  vessels  appear  to  have 
been  furnished  by  certain  ports  on  the  south  coast. 

LITERATURE,  LEARNING,  AND  ART 

134.  Runes.  —  The  language  of  the  Saxons  was  of  Low-German 
origin.  Many  of  the  words  resemble  the  German  of  the  present  day. 
When  written,  the  characters  were  called  runes ,  mysteries  or  secrets. 


449_i°66] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


53 


The  chief  use  of  these  runes  was  to  mark  a  sword-hilt,  or  some  article 
of  value,  or  to  form  a  charm  against  evil  and  witchcraft. 

It  is  supposed  that  one  of  the  earliest  runic  inscriptions  is  the 
following,  which  dates  from  about  400  a.d.  It  is  cut  on  a  drinking- 
horn,1  and  (reproduced  in  English  characters)  stands  thus  :  — 


EK  HLEWAGASTIR  .  HOLTINGAR  .  HORNA  .  TAWIDO. 
/,  Hlewagastir,  son  of  Holta,  made  the  horn. 


With  the  introduction  of  Christianity  the  Latin  alphabet,  from 
which  our  modern  English  alphabet  is  derived,  took  the  place  of  the 
runic  characters,  which  bore  some  resemblance  to  Greek,  and  English 
literature  began  with  the  coming  of  the  monks. 

135.  The  First  Books.  —  One  of  the  first  English  books  was  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  a  history  covering  a  period  of  about  twelve 
hundred  years,  beginning  with  the  Roman  invasion  and  ending  in  the 
year  1154. 

Though  written  in  prose,  it  contains  various  fragments  of  poetry, 
of  which  the  following  (rendered  into  modern  English),  on  the  death 
of  Edward  the  Confessor  (1066),  may  be  quoted  as  an  example:  — 


Then  suddenly  came 

Death  the  bitter 

And  that  dear  prince  seized. 

Angels  bore 

His  steadfast  soul 

Into  heaven’s  light. 

But  the  wise  King 
Bestowed  his  realm  • 

On  one  grown  great, 


On  Harold’s  self, 

A  noble  Earl ! 

Who  in  all  times 
Faithfully  hearkened 
Unto  his  lord 
In  word  and  deed, 
Nor  ever  failed 
In  aught  the  King 
Had  needed  of  him !  ” 


Other  early  books  were  Caedmon’s  poem  of  the  Creation,  also  in 
English,  and  Bede’s  church  history  of  Britain,  written  in  Latin,  a 
work  giving  a  full  and  most  interesting  account  of  the  coming  of 
Augustine  and  his  first  preaching  in  Kent.  All  of  these  books  were 
written  by  the  monks. 

136.  Art.  —  The  English  were  skilful  workers  in  metal,  espe¬ 
cially  in  gold  and  silver,  and  also  in  the  illumination  of  manuscripts.2 
Alfred’s  Jewel,  a  fine  specimen  of  the  blue  enamelled  gold  of  the 

1  The  golden  horn  of  Gallehas,  found  on  the  Danish-German  frontier. 

2  These  illuminations  get  their  name  from  the  gold,  silver,  and  bright  colors 
used  in  the  pictures,  borders,  and  decorated  letters  with  which  the  monks  ornamented 
these  books.  For  beautiful  specimens  of  the  work,  see  Silvestre’s  Paleographie. 


54 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [449-1066 


ninth  century,  is  preserved  in  the  Ashmolean  Museum,  Oxford.  It 
bears  the  inscription:  “Alfred  me  heht  gewurcan,”  Alfred  caused 
me  to  be  worked  [or  made]. 

The  women  of  that  period  excelled  in  weaving  fine  linen  and 
woollen  cloth  and  in  embroidering  tapestry. 

137.  Architecture.  —  In  architecture  no  advance  took  place  until 
very  late.  Up  to  the  year  1000  the  general  belief  that  the  world 
would  end  with  the  close  of  the  year  999  prevented  men  from 
building  for  permanence.  The  small  ancient  church  at  Bradford-on- 
Avon  belongs  to  the  Saxon  period.  The  Saxon  stone  work  exhibited 
in  a  few  buildings  like  the  church-tower  of  Earl’s  Barton,  Northamp¬ 
tonshire,  is  an  attempt  to  imitate  timber  with  stone,  and  has  been 
called  “stone  carpentry.”1  Edward  the  Confessor’s  work  in  West¬ 
minster  Abbey  was  not  Saxon,  but  Norman,  he  having  obtained  his 
plans,  and  probably  his  builders,  from  Normandy. 


GENERAL  INDUSTRY  AND  COMMERCE 


138.  Farms  ;  Slave  Trade.  —  The  farming  of  this  period,  except 
on  the  church  lands,  was  of  the  rudest  description.  Grain  was  ground 
by  the  women  and  slaves  in  stone  hand-mills.  Later,  the  mills  were 
driven  by  wind  or  water  power.  The  principal  commerce  was  in 
wool,  lead,  tin,  and  slaves.  A  writer  of  that  time  says  he  used  to  see 
long  trains  of  young  men  and  women  tied  together,  offered  for  sale, 
“  for  men  were  not  ashamed.”  he  adds,  “  to  sell  their  nearest  relatives, 
and  even  their  own  children.” 


MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND  CUSTOMS 


139.  The  Town.  —  The  first  Saxon  settlements  were  quite  gener¬ 
ally  on  the  line  of  the  old  Roman  roads.  They  were  surrounded  by  a 
rampart  of  earth  set  with  a  thick  hedge  or  with  rows  of  sharp  stakes. 
Outside  this  was  a  deep  ditch.  These  places  were  called  towns,  from 
“  tun,”  meaning  a  fence,  hedge,  or  other  enclosure.2 

140.  The  Hall.  —  The  buildings  in  these  towns  were  of  wood. 
Those  of  the  lords  or  chief  men  were  called  “  halls,”  from  the  fact 
that  they  consisted  mainly  of  a  hall,  or  large  room,  used  as  a  sitting, 
eating,  and  often  as  a  sleeping  room,  —  a  bundle  of  straw  or  some 

1  See  Parker's  Introduction  to  Gothic  Architecture  for  illustrations  of  this  work. 

2  One  or  more  houses  might  constitute  a  town.  A  single  farmhouse  is  still  so 
called  in  Scotland. 


449-1°66] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SAXONS 


55 


skins  thrown  on  the  floor  serving  for  beds.  There  were  no  chimneys, 
but  a  hole  in  the  roof  let  out  the  smoke.  If  the  owner  was  rich,  the 
walls  would  be  decorated  with  bright-colored  tapestry,  and  with  suits 
of  armor  and  shields  hanging  from  pegs. 

141.  Life  in  the  Hall.  —  Here  in  the  evening  the  master  supped  on 
a  raised  platform  at  one  end  of  the  “  hall,’'  while  his  followers  ate  at 
a  lower  table. 

The  Saxons  were  hard  drinkers  as  well  as  hard  fighters.  After 
the  meal,  while  horns  of  ale  and  mead  were  circulating,  the  minstrels, 
taking  their  harps,  would  sing  songs  of  battle  and  ballads  of  wild 
adventure. 

Outside  the  “  hall  ”  were  the  “  bowers,”  or  chambers  for  the  master 
and  his  family,  and,  perhaps,  an  upper  chamber  for  a  guest,  called 
later  by  the  Normans  a  so/lar,  or  sunny  room. 

If  a  stranger  approached  a  town,  he  was  obliged  to  blow  a  horn  ; 
otherwise  he  might  be  slain  as  an  outlaw. 

Here  in  the  midst  of  rude  plenty  the  Saxons,  or  Early  English,  lived 
a  life  of  sturdy  independence.  They  were# rough,  strong,  outspoken, 
and  fearless.  Theirs  was  not  the  nimble  brain,  for  that  was  to  come 
with  another  people,  though  a  people  originally  of  the  same  race. 
Their  mission  was  to  lay  the  foundation  ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  furnish 
the  muscle,  grit,  and  endurance,  without  which  the  nimble  brain  is  of 
little  permanent  value. 

142.  Guilds.  —  The  inhabitants  of  the  towns  and  cities  had  various 
associations  called  guilds  (from gild,  a  payment  or  contribution).  The 
object  of  these  was  mutual  assistance.  The  most  important  were  the 
Peace-guilds  1  and  the  Merchant-guilds.  The  former  constituted  a  vol¬ 
untary  police  force  to  preserve  order  and  bring  thieves  to  punishment. 

Each  member  contributed  a  small  sum  to  form  a  common  fund 
which  was  used  to  make  good  any  losses  incurred  by  robbery  or  fire. 
The  association  held  itself  responsible  for  the  good  behavior  of  its 
members,  and  kept  a  sharp  eye  on  strangers  and  stragglers,  who  had 
to  give  an  account  of  themselves  or  leave  the  country. 

The  Merchant-guilds  were  organized,  apparently  at  a  late  period,  to 
protect  and  extend  trade.  After  the  Norman  Conquest  they  came  to 
be  very  wealthy  and  influential.  In  addition  to  the  above,  there  were 
social  and  religious  guilds  which  made  provision  for  feasts,  for  mainte¬ 
nance  of  religious  services,  and  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  and  the  sick 


1  Frithgilds. 


56  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1087 


SECTION  V 


“In  other  countries  the  struggle  has  been  to  gain  liberty;  in  England, 
to  preserve  it.”  —  Alison. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

THE  KING  versus  THE  BARONS 

Building  the  Norman  Superstructure  —  The  Age  of 
Feudalism 

NORMAN  SOVEREIGNS 

William  I,  1066-1087.  Henry  I,  1100-1135. 

William  II,  1087-1100.  Stephen  (House  of  Blois),  1135-1154. 

143.  Duke  William  hears  of  Harold’s  Accession;  Message 
to  Harold.  —  Duke  William  of  Normandy  was  in  his  park  near 
Rouen,  the  capital  of  his  dukedom,  getting  ready  for  a  hunting 
expedition,  when  the  news  was  brought  to  him  of  Harold’s  acces¬ 
sion  (§  hi).  The  old  chronicler  says  the  duke  “stopped  short 
in  his  preparations  ;  he  spoke  to  no  man,  and  no  man  dared  speak 
to  him.” 

At  length  he  resolved  to  send  a  message  to  the  King  of  England. 
His  demand  is  not  known ;  but  whatever  it  was,  Harold  appears 
to  have  answered  with  a  rough  refusal. 

144.  William  prepares  to  invade  England. — Then  William 
determined  to  appeal  to  the  sword.  During  the  spring  and  sum¬ 
mer  of  that  year,  the  duke  was  employed  in  fitting  out  a  fleet  for 
the  invasion,  and  his  smiths  and  armorers  were  busy  making 
lances,  swords,  and  coats  of  mail.  The  Pope  favored  the  expedi¬ 
tion  and  presented  a  banner  blessed  by  himself,  to  be  carried  in 
the  attack ;  “  mothers,  too,  sent  their  sons  for  the  salvation  of 
thdir  souls.” 


1066-1087]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


57 


145.  The  Expedition  sails  (1066).  —  After  many  delays,  at 
length  all  was  ready,  and  at  daybreak  (Sept.  27,  1066)  William 
sailed  with  a  fleet  of  several  hundred  ships  and  a  large  number 
of  transports,  his  own  vessel  leading  the  van,  with  the  consecrated 
banner  at  the  mast-head. 

His  army  consisted  of  archers  and  cavalry,  and  may  have  num¬ 
bered  between  fifty  and  sixty  thousand.  They  were  partly  his 
own  subjects,  and  partly  hired  soldiers,  or  those  who  joined  for 
the  sake  of  plunder.  He  also  carried  a  large  force  of  smiths  and 
carpenters,  with  timber  ready  cut  and  fitted  for  a  wooden  castle. 

146.  William  lands  at  Pevensey.  —  The  next  day  the  fleet 
anchored  at  Pevensey,1  under  the  walls  of  that  old  Roman  fortress 
of  Anderida  (§  71),  which  had  stood,  a  vacant  ruin,  since  the 
Saxons  stormed  it  nearly  six  hundred  years  before.  Tradition  says 
that  as  William  stepped  on  shore  he  stumbled  and  fell:  “  God 
preserve  us  !  ”  cried  one  of  his  men  ;  “  this  is  a  bad  sign.”  But 
the  duke,  grasping  the  pebbles  of  the  beach  with  both  his  out¬ 
stretched  hands,  exclaimed,  “  Thus  do  I  seize  the  land  !  ” 

147.  Harold  in  the  North. — There  was,  in  fact,  no  power  to 
prevent  him  from  establishing  his  camp,  for  King  Harold  (§  xxi) 
was  in  the  north  quelling  an  invasion  headed  by  the  King  of  the 
Norwegians  and  his  brother  Tostig,  who  hoped  to  secure  the 
throne  for  himself.  Harold  had  just  sat  down  to  a  victory  feast, 
after  the  battle  of  Stamford  Bridge,2  when  news  was  brought  to 
him  of  the  landing  of  William. 

It  was  this  fatal  want  of  unity  in  England  which  made  the 
Norman  Conquest  possible.  Had  not  Harold’s  own  brother 
Tostig  turned  traitorously  against  him,  or  had  the  north  country 
stood  squarely  by  the  south,  Duke  William  might  have  found  his 
fall  on  the  beach  an  omen  indeed  full  of  disaster. 

148.  What  William  did  after  landing  (1066).  —  As  there  was 
no  one  to  oppose  him,  William  made  a  fort  in  a  corner  of  the  old 
Roman  wall  of  Anderida  (§  71).  He  then  marched  to  Hastings, 
a  few  miles  farther  east,  where  he  set  up  his  wooden  castle  on 

1  Pevensey:  see  Map  No.  6,  facing  page  42. 

2  Stamford  Bridge,  Northumberland  (Yorkshire) .  see  Map  No.  5,  facing  page  40. 


58  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1087 


that  hill  where  the  ruins  of  a  later  stone  castle  may  still  be  seen. 
Having  done  this,  he  pillaged  the  country  in  every  direction,  until 
the  14th  of  October,  the  day  of  the  great  battle. 

149.  Harold  marches  to  meet  William  (1066).  —  Harold,  hav¬ 
ing  gathered  what  forces  he  could,  marched  to  meet  William  at 
Senlac,  a  place  midway  between  Pevensey  and  Hastings,  and 
about  five  miles  back  from  the  coast.  Here,  on  the  evening  of 
the  13th  of  October,  he  entrenched  himself  on  a  hill,  and  there 
the  battle  was  waged. 

Harold  had  the  advantage  of  the  stockaded  fort  he  had  built ; 
William,  that  of  a  body  of  cavalry  and  archers,  for  the  English 
fought  on  foot  with  javelins  and  battle-axes  mainly.  The  Saxons 
spent  the  night  in  feasting  and  song;  the  Normans,  in  prayer  and 
confession. 

150.  The  Battle,  1066. — On  the  morning  of  the  14th  of 
October  the  fight  began.  It  lasted  until  dark,  with  heavy  loss 
on  both  sides.  At  length  William’s  strategy  carried  the  day,  and 
Harold  and  his  brave  followers  found  to  their  cost  that  then,  as 
now,  it  is  “  the  thinking  bayonet”  which  conquers.  The  English 
King  was  slain  and  every  man  of  his  chosen  troops  with  him. 

A  monkish  chronicler,  in  speaking  of  the  Conquest,  says  that 
“  the  vices  of  the  Saxons  had  made  them  effeminate  and  woman¬ 
ish,  wherefore  it  came  to  pass  that,  running  against  Duke  William, 
they  lost  themselves  and  their  country  with  one,  and  that  an  easy 
and  light  battle.”  1 

Doubtless  the  English  had  fallen  off  in  many  ways  from  their 
first  estate  ;  but  the  record  at  Senlac  (or  Hastings)  shows  that 
they  had  lost  neither  strength,  courage,  nor  endurance,  and  a 
harder  battle  or  a  longer  was  never  fought  on  British  soil. 

151.  The  Abbey  of  Battle;  Harold’s  Grave.  —  A  few  years 
later  the  Norman  conqueror  built  the  Abbey  of  Battle  on  the 
spot  to  commemorate  the  victory  by  which  he  gained  his  crown. 
He  ordered  that  the  monks  should  chant  perpetual  prayers  over 
the  Norman  soldiers  who  had  fallen  there. 

Here,  also,  tradition  represents  him  as  having  buried  Harold’s 
1  William  of  Malmesbury’s  Chronicle. 


1066-1087]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


59 


body,  just  after  the  fight,  under  a  heap  of  stones  by  the  seashore. 
Some  months  later  it  is  said  that  the  friends  of  the  English  King 
removed  the  remains  to  Waltham,  near  London,  and  buried  them 
in  the  church  which  he  had  built  and  endowed  there.1 

Be  that  as  it  may,  his  grave,  wherever  it  is,  is  the  grave  of  the 
old  England,  for  henceforth  a  new  people  (though  not  a  new  race) 
and  a  somewhat  modified  form  of  government  appear  in  the 
history  of  the  island. 

152.  The  Bayeux2  Tapestry.  — Several  contemporary  accounts 
of  the  battle  exist  by  both  French  and  English  writers.  But  the 
best  history  is  one  wrought  in  colors  by  a  woman’s  hand.  It 
represents  the  scenes  of  the  famous  contest  on  a  strip  of  canvas 
known,  from  the  French  cathedral,  where  it  is  still  preserved,  as 
the  Bayeux  Tapestry  (§  205). 

153.  William  marches  on  London  (1066).  —  Soon  after  the 
battle,  William  advanced  on  London  and  set  fire  to  the  South¬ 
wark  suburbs.8  The  Londoners,  terrified  by  the  flames,  and  later 
cut  off  from  help  from  the  north  by  the  Conqueror’s  besieging 
army,  opened  their  gates  and  surrendered  without  striking  a  blow. 

154.  William  grants  a  Charter  to  London  (1066).  —  In  return, 
William  granted  the  city  a  charter,  or  formal  and  solemn  written 
pledge,  by  which  he  guaranteed  the  inhabitants  the  liberties  which 
they  had  enjoyed  under  Edward  the  Confessor  (§  109). 

That  document  may  still  be  seen  among  the  records  in  Guild¬ 
hall,4  in  London.  It  is  a  bit  of  parchment,  hardly  bigger  than  a 
man’s  hand,  containing  a  few  lines  in  English,  and  is  signed  with 
William’s  mark  ;  for  he  who  wielded  the  sword  so  effectually  either 
could  not  or  would  not  handle  the  pen.  By  that  mark  all  the 
past  privileges  and  immunities  of  the  city  were  confirmed  and 
protected. 

155.  The  Coronation;  William  returns  to  Normandy. — On 

the  following  Christmas  Day  (1066)  William  was  anointed  and 

1  This  church  became  afterward  Waltham  Abbey.  2  Bayeux  (Bay'  yuh'). 

3  Southwark :  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Thames.  It  is  now  connected  with  London 
proper  by  London  Bridge. 

4  Guildhall :  the  City  Hall,  the  place  where  the  guilds,  or  different  corporations  of 
the  city  proper,  meet  to  transact  business. 


60  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1087 


crowned  in  Westminster  Abbey.  In  the  spring  (1067)  he  sailed 
for  Normandy,  where  he  had  left  his  Queen,  Matilda,  to  govern 
in  his  absence. 

While  on  the  continent  he  entrusted  England  to  the  hands  of 
two  regents,  one  his  half-brother,  Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux,  the 
other  his  friend,  William  Fitz-Osbern ;  the  former  he  had  made 
•Earl  of  Kent,  the  latter  Earl  of  Hereford. 

During  the  next  three  years  there  were  outbreaks  and  uprisings 
in  the  lowlands  of  Cambridgeshire  and  the  moors  of  Yorkshire, 
besides  incursions  of  both  Danes  and  Scots. 

156.  William  quells  Rebellion  in  the  North  (1068).  —  The 
oppressive  nde  of  the  regents  (§  155)  soon  caused  a  rebellion; 
and  in  December  William  found  it  expedient  to  return  to  England. 
In  order  to  gain  time,  the  King  bought  off  the  Danes.  Little  by 
little,  however,  the  land  was  brought  to  obedience.  By  forced 
marches  in  midwinter,  by  roads  cast  up  through  bogs,  and  by 
sudden  night  attacks,  William  accomplished  the  end  he  sought. 

But  (1068)  news  came  of  a  fresh' revolt  in  the  north,  accom¬ 
panied  by  another  invasion  of  foreign  barbarians.  Then  William, 
roused  to  terrible  anger,  swore  by  the  “  splendor  of  God  ”  that  he 
would  lay  waste  the  land. 

He  made  good  his  oath.  For  a  hundred  miles  beyond  the 
river  Humber  he  ravaged  the  country,  firing  villages,  destroying 
houses,  crops,  and  cattle,  and  reducing  the  wretched  people  to 
such  destitution  that  many  sold  themselves  for  slaves  to  escape 
starvation.  Having  finished  his  work  in  the  north,  he  turned 
toward  Chester,  in  the  w-est,  and  captured  that  city. 

157.  Hereward  (1091).  —  Every  part  of  the  land  was  now  in 
William’s  power  except  an  island  in  the  swamps  of  Ely,1  in  the 
east,  where  the  Englishman  Hereward,  with  his  resolute  little 
band  of  fellow-countrymen,  continued  to  defy  the  power  of  the 
Conqueror.  “  Had  there  been  three  more  men  like  him  in  the 
island,”  said  one  of  William’s  own  men,  “  the  Normans  would 
never  have  entered  it.”  But  as  there  were  not  three  more  such, 
the  conquest  was  at  length  completed. 

•  1  Ely :  in  the  east  of  England.  See  Map  No.  5,  facing  page  40. 


1066-1087]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS  6 1 

158.  Necessity  of  William’s  Severity.  —  The  work  of  death 
had  been  fearful.  But  even  these  pitiless  measures  were  better 
than  that  England  should  sink  into  anarchy,  or  into  subjection  to 
hordes  of  Northmen  (§  91),  who  destroyed  purely  out  of  love  of 
destruction  and  hatred  of  civilization  and  its  works. 

For  whatever  William’s  faults  or  crimes,  his  great  object  was 
the  upbuilding  of  a  government  better  than  any  England  had  yet 
seen.  Hence  his  severity,  hence  his  elaborate  safeguards,  by 
which  he  made  sure  of  retaining  his  hold  upon  whatever  he 
had  gained. 

159.  He  builds  the  Tower  of  London. — -We  have  seen  that 
he  gave  London  a  charter  (§  154);  but  overlooking  the  place 
in  which  that  charter  was  kept,  he  built  the  Tower  of  London  to 
hold  the  turbulent  city  in  wholesome  restraint.  That  'I'ower,  as 
fortress,  palace,  and  prison,  stands  as  the  dark  background  of  most 
of  the  great  events  in  English  history. 

It  was  the  forerunner,  so  to  speak,  of  a  multitude  of  castles. 
They  soon  after  rose  on  the  banks  of  every  river,  and  on  the  sum¬ 
mit  of  every  rocky  height,  from  the  west  hill  of  Hastings  to  the 
peak  of  Derbyshire,  and  from  the  banks  of  the  Thames  to  those 
of  the  Tweed.  Side  by  side  with  these  strongholds  there  also  rose 
an  almost  equal  number  of  monasteries,  churches,  and  cathedrals. 

160.  William  confiscates  the  Land  ;  Classes  of  Society.  — 
Hand  in  hand  with  the  progress  of  conquest,  the  confiscation  of 
land  went  on.  William  had  seized  the  estates  of  Harold  (§  151) 
and  of  all  the  chief  men  associated  with  him,  to  grant  them  to 
his  followers.  In  this  way  he  gave  to  Bishop  Odo,  Fitz-Osbern, 
and  Roger  of  Montgomery  immense  estates  in  various  parts  of 
England. 

Other  grants  were  made  by  him,  until  by  the  close  of  his  reign 
no  great  landholder  was  left  among  the  English,  with  the  ex¬ 
ception  of  a  very  few  who  were  thoroughly  Norman  in  their 
sympathies  and  in  their  allegiance. 

Two  great  classes  of  society  now  existed  in  England.  First,  the 
Norman  conquerors,  who  as  chief  tenants  or  landholders  under  the 
King  were  called  barons.  Secondly,  the  English  who  had  been 


62 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1087 


reduced  to  a  subordinate  condition.  Most  of  these  now  held 
their  land  under  the  barons,  and  a  majority  of  them  were  no 
longer  free. 

This  latter  class  were  called  villeins.1  They  were  bound  to  the 
soil  (§  200),  and  could  be  sold  with  it,  but  not, dike  slaves,  sepa¬ 
rately  from  it.  They  could  be  compelled  to  perform  any  menial 
service,  but  usually  held  their  plots  of  land  and  humble  cottages 
on  condition  of  ploughing  a  certain  number  of  acres  or  doing  a 
certain  number  of  days’  work  in  each  year  for  their  lord. 

In  time  they  often  obtained  the  privilege  of  paying  a  fixed 
money  rent  in  place  of  labor,  and  then  their  condition  gradually 
though  very  slowly  improved. 

161.  How  he  granted  Estates. — Yet  it  is  noticeable  that  in 
these  grants  William  was  careful  not  to  give  large  possessions  to 
any  one  person  in  any  one  shire.  His  experience  in  Normandy 
had  taught  him  that  it  was  better  to  divide  than  to  concentrate 
the  jiower  of  the  great  nobles,  who  were  only  too  ready  to  plot 
to  get  the  crown  for  themselves. 

Thus  William  developed  and  extended  the  feudal  system  of 
land  tenure,2  already  in  existence  in  outline  among  the  Saxons 
(§§  122,  200),  until  it  covered  every  part  of  the  realm.  He,  how¬ 
ever,  kept  it  slrictly  subordinate  to  himself,  and  before  the  close 
of  his  reign  made  it  absolutely  so. 

162.  The  Three  Counties  Palatine. — The  only  exceptions  to 
these  grants  were  the  three  Counties  Palatine,3  which  defended 
the  border  country  in  the  north  and  west,  and  the  coast  on  the 
south.  To  the  earls  of  these  counties,  Chester,  Durham,  and 
Kent,  William  gave  almost  royal  power,  which  descended  in  their 
families,  thus  making  the  title  hereditary. 

1  Villein  :  a  name  derived  from  the  Latin  villa,  a  country-house,  or  farm,  because 
originally  the  villein  was  a  laborer  who  had  a  share  in  the  common  land.  Our 
modern  word  “  villain  ”  comes  from  the  same  source,  though  time  has  given  it  a 
totally  different  meaning.  See,  too,  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix,  page 
ii>,  §  5- 

2  See,  too,  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix,  page  v,  §  6. 

3  Palatine  (from  palatium ,  palace)  :  having  rights  equal  with  the  King  in  his 
palace.  Shropshire  was  practically  a  fourth  County  Palatine  until  Henry  I.  Later, 
Lancaster  was  added  to  the  list. 


PART  OF  THE  BAYEUX  TAPESTRY  SHOWING  THE  BATTLE  OF  HASTINGS,  1066 


066-1087]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


63 


163.  How  William  stopped  Assassination.  — The  hard  rule  of 
the  Norman  nobles  caused  many  secret  assassinations.  To  put  a 
stop  to  these  crimes,  William  enacted  the  Law  of  Englishry.  It 
compelled  the  people  of  the  district  where  a  murder  was  per¬ 
petrated  to  pay  a  heavy  fine  for  every  Norman  so  slain ;  for  it 
was  assumed  that  unless  they  could  prove  to  the  contrary,  every 
man  found  murdered  was  a  Norman. 

✓  164.  Pope  Gregory  VII. — While  these  events  were  taking 
place  in  England,  Hildebrand,  the  archdeacon  who  had  urged 
Pope  Alexander  to  favor  William’s  expedition,  had  ascended  the 
papal  throne,  under  the  title  of  Gregory  VII.  He  was  the  ablest, 
the  most  ambitious,  and,  in  some  respects,  the  most  far-sighted 
man  who  had  made  himself  the  supreme  head  of  the  Church. 

165.  State  of  Europe  ;  Gregory’s  Scheme  of  Reform.  —  Europe 
was  at  that  time  in  a  condition  little  better  than  anarchy.  A  per¬ 
petual  quarrel  was  going  on  between  the  barons.  The  Church, 
too,  as  we  have  seen  (§§  92,  101),  had  lost  much  of  its  power  for 
good  in  England,  and  was  rapidly  foiling  into  obscurity  and  con¬ 
tempt.  Pope  Gregory  conceived  a  scheme  of  reform  which  should 
be  both  wide  and  deep. 

Like  Dunstan  (§  100),  he  determined  to  correct  the  abuses 
which  had  crept  into  the  monasteries.  He  would  have  an  unmar¬ 
ried  priesthood,  who  should  devote  themselves  body  and  soul  to 
the  interests  of  the  Church.  He  would  bring  all  society  into 
submission  to  that  priesthood,  and  finally  he  would  make  the 
priesthood  itself  acknowledge  him  as  its  sole  master.  His  purpose 
in  this  gigantic  scheme  was  a  noble  one ;  it  was  to  establish  the 
unity  and  peace  of  Europe. 

166.  The  Pope  and  the  Conqueror.  —  Gregory  looked  to  Wil¬ 
liam  for  help  in  this  matter.  The  Conqueror  was  ready  to  give  it, 
but  with  limitations.  He  pledged  himself  to  aid  in  reforming  the 
English  Church.  He  undertook  to  remove  inefficient  men  from  its 
high  places,  and  to  establish  special  ecclesiastical  courts  (§  201), 
for  the  trial  of  church  cases.  Finally  he  agreed  to  pay  a  yearly 
tax  to  Rome.  But  he  refused  to  take  any  step  which  should  make 
England  politically  subservient  to  the  Pope.  On  the  contrary,  he 


64  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1087 


emphatically  declared  that  he  was  and  would  remain  an  inde¬ 
pendent  sovereign,  and  that  the  English  Church  must  obey  him 
in  preference  to  any  other  power.  *  I 

He  furthermore  laid  down  these  three  rules  :  1.  That  neither 
the  Pope,  the  Pope’s  representative,  nor  letters  from  the  Pope 
should  be  received  in  England  without  his  leave.  2.  That  no 
meeting  of  church  authorities  should  be  called  or  should  take 
any  action  without  his  leave.  3.  That  no  baron  or  servant  of 
his  should  be  expelled  from  the  Church  without  his  leave. 

Thus  William  alone  of  all  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  successfully 
withstood  the  power  of  Rome.  Henry  IV  of  Germany  had 
attempted  the  same  thing.  But  so  completely  was  he  defeated 
and  humbled  that  he  had  been  compelled  to  stand  barefooted  in 
the  snow  before  the  Pope’s  palace  waiting  three  days  for  permis¬ 
sion  to  enter  and  beg  forgiveness.  But  William  knew  the  inde-*- 
pendent  temper  of  England,  and  that  he  could  depend  on  it 
for  support. 

167.  William  a  Stern  but  Just  Ruler;  New  Forest.  —  Con¬ 
sidering  his  love  of  power  and  strength  of  will,  the  reign  of  Wil¬ 
liam  was  conspicuous  for  its  justice.  He  was  harsh  but  generally 
fair.  His  most  despotic  act  was  the  seizure  and  devastation  of  a 
tract  of  over  sixty  thousand  acres  in  Hampshire  for  a  hunting- 
ground,  which  received  the  name  of  the  New  Forest.1  It  has 
been  said  that  William  destroyed  many  churches  and  estates  in 
order  to  form  this  forest,  but  these  accounts  appear  to  have  been 
greatly  exaggerated. 

The  real  grievance  was  not  so  much  the  appropriation  of  the 
land,  which  was  sterile  and  of  little  value,  but  it  was  the  enact¬ 
ment  of  the  savage  Forest  Laws.  These  made  the  life  of 
a  stag  of  more  value  than  that  of  a  man,  and  decreed  that 
any  one  found  hunting  the  royal  deer  should  have  both  eyes 
torn  out. 

1  Forest :  as  here  used,  this  does  not  mean  a  region  covered  with  woods,  but 
simply  a  section  of  country,  partially  wooded  and  suitable  for  game,  set  apart  as  a 
royal  park  or  hunting-ground.  As  William  made  his  residence  at  Winchester,  in 
Hampshire,  in  the  south  of  England  (see  Map  No.  22,  facing  page  416),  he  naturally 
took  land  in  that  vicinity  for  the  chase. 


1066-10S7]  THE  COMING  OF  TIIE  NORMANS 


65 


168.  The  Great  Survey  (1085).  —  Not  quite  twenty  years 
after  his  coronation  William  ordered  a  survey  and  valuation 
to  be  made  of  the  whole  realm  outside  of  London,  with  the 
exception  of  certain  border  counties  on  the  north. 

These  appear  to  have  been  omitted,  either  because  they 
were  sparsely  populated  by  a  mixed  race,  or  for  the  reason 
that  since  his  campaign  in  the  north  (§  156)  little  was  left 
to  record  there  but  heaps  of  ruins  and  ridges  of  grass-grown 
graves. 

169.  The  Domesday  Book  (1086). — -The  returns  of  that  sur¬ 
vey  (1086)  are  known  as  Domesday  or  Doomsday  Book,  a  name 
given,  it  is  said,  by  the  English,  because,  like  the  Day  of  Doom, 
it  spared  no  one. 

It  recorded  every  piece  of  property  and  every  particular  con¬ 
cerning  it.  As  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  (§  205)  indignantly 
said,  not  a  rood  of  land,  not  a  peasant’s  hut,  not  an  ox,  cow, 
pig,  or  even  a  hive  of  bees,  escaped. 

While  the  report  showed  the  wealth  of  the  country,  it  also 
showed  the  suffering  it  had  passed  through  in  the  revolts  against 
William.  Many  towns  had  fallen  into  decay.  Some  were  nearly 
depopulated.  In  Edward  the  Confessor’s  reign  (§  109)  York  had 
1607  houses;  at  the  date  of  the  survey  it  had  but  967,  while 
Oxford,  which  had  had  721  houses,  had  then  only  243. 

This  census  and  assessment  proved  of  the  highest  importance 
to  William  and  his  successors.  The  people,  indeed,  said  bitterly 
that  the  King  kept  the  book  constantly  by  him,  in  order  “  that 
he  might  be  able  to  see  at  any  time  of  how  much  more  wool  the 
English  flock  would  bear  fleecing.” 

The  object  of  the  work,  however,  was  not  extortion,  but  to 
present  a  full  and  exact  account  of  the  financial  and  military 
condition  of  the  kingdom  which  might  be  directly  available  for 
revenue  and  defence. 

170.  The  Great  Meeting  (1086). — In  the  midsummer  fol¬ 
lowing  the  completion  of  Domesday  Book,  William  summoned 
all  the  nobles  and  chief  landholders  of  the  realm,  with 
their  vassals  or  tenants,  to  meet  him  on  Salisbury  Plain, 


66  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1087 

Wiltshire.1  The  entire  assemblage  numbered  about  sixty  thousand. 
There  was  a  logical  connection  between  that  summons  and  the 
great  survey  (§  168).  Each  man’s  possessions  and  each  man’s 
responsibility  were  now  known.  Thus  Domesday  Book  prepared 
the  way  for  the  assembly  and  for  the  action  that  was  to  be  taken 
there. 

The  place  chosen  was  historic  ground.  On  that  field  William 
had  once  reviewed  his  victorious  troops,  and  in  front  of  the 
encampment  rose  the  hill  of  Old  Sarum,  scarred  with  the  remains 
of  Roman  entrenchments. 

Stonehenge  was  near  (§  23).  It  was  within  sight  of  it  and  of 
the  burial  mounds  (§  16)  of  those  primeval  races  which  had  made 
their  home  there  during  the  childhood  of  the  world,  that  the 
Norman  sovereign  finished  his  work.  • 

1 71.  The  Oath  of  Allegiance.  — There  William  demanded  and 
received  the  sworn  allegiance  not  only  of  every  lord,  but  of  every 
lord’s  free  vassal  or  tenant,  from  Cornwall  to  the  Scottish  borders. 
By  that  act  England  was  made  one.  By  it,  it  was  settled  that 
every  man  in  the  realm,  of  whatever  condition,  was  bound  first  of 
all  to  fight  for  the  King,  even  if  in  doing  so  he  had  to  fight  against 
his  own  lord.2 

172.  What  William  had  done.  —  A  score  of  years  before,  Wil¬ 
liam  had  landed,  seeking  a  throne  to  which  no  human  law  had 
given  him  any  just  claim.  But  Nature  had  elected  him  to  it 
when  she  endowed  him  with  power  to  take,  power  to  use,  and 
power  to  hold. 

It  was  fortunate  for  England  that  he  came;  for  out  of  chaos, 
or  affairs  fast  drifting  to  chaos,  his-  strong  hand,  clear  brain,  and 
resolute  purpose  brought  order,  beauty,  safety,  and  stability.  We 

1  See  Map  of  England,  page  416.  Wiltshire  is  in  the  south  of  England.  The 
Saxon  seat  of  government  had  been  at  Winchester  (Hampshire)  ;  under  Edward  the 
Confessor  and  Harold,  it  was  transferred  to  Westminster  (London)  ;  but  the  honor 
was  again  restored  to  Winchester  by  William,  who  made  it  his  principal  residence. 
This  was  perhaps  the  reason  why  he  chose  Salisbury  Plain  (the  nearest  open  region) 
for  the  meeting.  It  was  held  where  the  modern  city  of  Salisbury  stands. 

-  See  §§  200,  202  ;  and  see  also  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix,  page 
v,  §  6. 


1066-1087]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS  67 

may  say  with  Guizot,  that  “  England  owes  her  liberties  to  her 
having  been  conquered  by  the  Normans.” 

173.  William’s  Death  (1087).  —  In  less  than  a  year  from  that 
time,  William  went  to  Normandy  to  quell  an  invasion  led  by  his 
eldest  son,  Robert.  As  he  rode  down  a  steep  street  in  Mantes, 
his  horse  stumbled  and  he  received  a  fatal  injury.  He  was 
carried  to  the  priory  of  St.  Gervase,  just  outside  the  city  of  Rouen.1 

Early  in  the  morning  he  was  awakened  by  the  great  cathedral 
bell.  “  It  is  the  hour  of  praise,”  his  attendant  said  to  him, 
“when  the  priests  give  thanks  for  the  new  day.”  William  lifted 
up  his  hands  in  prayer  and  expired. 

174.  His  Burial  (1087).  —  His  remains  were  taken  for  interment 
to  St.  Stephen’s  Church,2  which  he  had  built.  As  they  were  pre¬ 
paring  to  let  down  the  body  into  the  grave,  a  man  suddenly 
stepped  forward  and  forbade  the  burial. 

William,  he  said,  had  taken  the  land,  on  which  the  church 
stood,  from  his  father  by  violence.  He  demanded  payment. 
The  corpse  was  left  on  the  bier,  and  inquiry  instituted,  and  not 
until  the  debt  was  discharged  was  the  body  lowered  to  its  last 
resting-place.  . 

“Thus,”  says  the  old  chronicle,  “  he  who  had  been  a  powerful 
king,  and  the  lord  of  so  many  territories,  possessed  not  then  of 
all  his  lands  more  than  seven  feet  of  earth,”  and  not  even  that 
until  the  cash  was  paid  for  it  !  But  William’s  bones  were  not  to 
rest  when  finally  laid  in  the  grave,  for  less  than  five  centuries  later 
(1532)  the  French  Protestants  dug  them  up  and  scattered  them. 

175.  Summary  (1066-1087). — The  results  of  the  Conquest 
may  be  thus  summed  up  :  1.  It  was  not  the  subjugation  of  the 
English  by  a  different  race,  but  rather  a  victory  won  for  their 
advantage  by  a  branch  of  their  own  race.3  It  brought  England 
into  closer  contact  with  the  higher  civilization  of  the  continent, 
introduced  fresh  intellectual  stimulus,  and  gave  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  a  more  progressive  spirit. 

1  Rouen  (Rue' an').  2  In  Caen,  Normandy. 

3  It  has  already  been  shown  that  Norman,  Saxon,  and  Dane  were  originally 
branches  of  the  Teutonic  or  German  race.  See  §§  105,  114. 


68  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1087 


2.  It  modified  the  English  language  by  the  influence  of  the 
Norman-French  element,  thus  giving  it  greater  flexibility,  refine¬ 
ment,  and  elegance  of  expression. 

3.  It  substituted,  for  the  fragile  and  decaying  structures  of 
wood  built  by  the  Saxons,  noble  edifices  in  stone,  the  cathedral 
and  the  castle,  both  being  essentially  Norman. 

4.  It  hastened  consolidating  influences  already  at  work,  devel¬ 
oped  and  completed  the  feudal  form  of  land  tenure  free  from  the 
evils  of  continental  feudalism  (§  200),  reorganized  the  Church, 
and  defined  the  relation  of  the  State  to  the  papal  power  (§  166). 

5.  It  abolished  the  four  great  earldoms  (§  107),  which  had 
been  a  constant  source  of  weakness,  danger,  and  division ;  it  put 
an  end  to  the  Danish  invasions,  and  it  established  a  strong 
monarchical  government,  to  which  the  nobles  and  their  vassals 
or  tenants  were  compelled  to  swear  allegiance. 

6.  It  made  no  radical  changes  in  the  English  laws,  but  enforced 
impartial  obedience  to  them  among  all  classes. 


WILLIAM  RUFUS1  — 1087-1100 


176.  William  the  Conqueror’s  Bequest  (1087). — William  the 
Conqueror  left  three  sons,  —  Robert,  William  Rufus,  and  Henry. 
He  also  left  a  daughter,  Adela,  who  married  a  powerful  French 
nobleman,  Stephen,  Count  of  Blois.  On  his  death-bed  William 
bequeathed  Normandy  to  Robert. 

He  expressed  a  wish  that  William  Rufus  should  become  ruler 
over  England,  while  to  Henry  he  left  five  thousand  pounds  of 
silver,  with  the  prediction  that  he  would  ultimately  be  the  greatest 
of  them  all. 

Before  his  eyes  were  closed,  the  sons  hurried  away,  —  William 
Rufus  to  seize  the  realm  of  England,  Henry  to  get  possession 
of  his  treasure.  Robert  was  not  present.  His  recent  rebellion 
would  alone  have  been  sufficient  reason  for  allotting  to  him  the 
lesser  portion  ;  but  even  had  he  deserved  the  sceptre,  William 
knew  that  it  required  a  firmer  hand  than  his  to  hold  it. 


1  William  Rufus,  William  the  Red  :  a  nickname,  probably  derived  from  his  red  face. 


1087-1100]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


69 


177.  Precarious  State  of  England.- — France  was  simply  an 
aggregation  of  independent  and  mutually  hostile  dukedoms.  The 
reckless  ambition  of  the  Norman  leaders  threatened  to  bring 
England  into  the  same  condition  (§  200). 

During  the  twenty-one  years  of  William  the  Conqueror’s  reign, 
the  Norman  barons  had  constantly  tried  to  break  loose  from  his 
restraining  power.  It  was  certain,  then,  that  the  news  of  his 
death  would  be  the  signal  for  still  more  desperate  attempts. 

178.  Character  of  William  Rufus.  —  Rufus  had  his  father’s 
ability  and  resolution,  but  none  of  his  father’s  conscience.  As 
the  historian  of  that  time  declared,  “  He  feared  God  but  little, 
man  not  at  all.”  He  had  Caesar’s  faith  in  destiny,  and  said  to  a 
boatman  who  hesitated  to  set  off  with  him  in  a  storm  at  his 
command,  “  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  king’s  being  drowned?  ” 

179.  His  Struggle  with  the  Barons.  — During  the  greater  part 
of  the  thirteen  years  of  his  reign  he  was  at  war  with  his  barons 
(§  200).  It  was  a  battle  of  centralization  against  disintegration. 
“Let  every  man,”  said  the  King,  “who  would  not  be  branded 
infamous  and  a  coward,  whether  he  live  in  town  or  country,  leave 
everything  and  come  to  me”  (§  121). 

In  answer  to  that  appeal,  the  English  rallied  around  their  Nor¬ 
man  sovereign,  and  gained  the  day  for  him  under  the  walls  of 
Rochester  Castle,  Kent.  Of  the  two  evils,  the  tyranny  of  one 
or  the  tyranny  of  many,  the  first  seemed  to  them  preferable. 

180.  William’s  Method  of  raising  Money ;  he  defrauds  the 
Church.  —  If  in  some  respects  William  the  Conqueror  had  been 
a  harsh  ruler,  his  son  was  worse.  His  brother  Robert  had 
mortgaged  Normandy  to  him  in  order  to  get  money  to  join  the 
first  crusade.1  The  King  raised  it  by  the  most  oppressive  and 
unscrupulous  means. 

William’s  most  trusted  counsellor  was  Ranulf  Flambard.2  Flam- 

1  Crusade  (I.atin  crux ,  the  cross) :  the  crusades  were  a  series  of  eight  military 
expeditions  undertaken  by  the  Christian  powers  of  Europe  to  recover  Jerusalem  and 
the  Holy  Land  from  the  hands  of  the  Mohammedans.  They  received  their  name 
from  the  badge  of  the  cross  worn  by  the  soldiers.  The  first  crusade  was  undertaken 
in  iogj,  and  t',e  last  *n  i27°-  Their  effects  will  be  fully  considered  under  Richard  I, 
who  took  part  in  them.  2  Flambard  :  a  nickname ;  the  torch,  or  firebrand. 


70  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1087-1100 


bard  had  brains  without  principle.  He  devised  a  system  of  plun¬ 
dering  both  Church  and  people  in  the  King’s  interest.  Lanfranc, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  died  three  years  after  William’s  acces¬ 
sion.  Through  Flambard’s  advice,  the  King  left  the  archbishopric 
vacant  and  appropriated  its  revenues  tc  himself.  He  practised 
the  same  course  with  respect  to  every  office  of  the  Church. 

18 1.  The  King  makes  Anselm  Archbishop  (1093). — While 
this  process  of  systematized  robbery  w'as  going  on,  the  King  sud¬ 
denly  fell  ill.  In  his  alarm  lest  death  w'as  at  hand,  he  determined 
to  make  reparation  to  the  defrauded  and  insulted  priesthood.  He 
invited  Anselm,  the  abbot  of  a  famous  monastery  in  Normandy,  to 
accept  the  archbishopric. 

Anselm,  w'ho  was  old  and  feeble,  declined,  saying  that  he  and 
the  King  could  not  work  together.  “  It  would  be,”  said  he,  “  like 
yoking  a  sheep  and  a  bull.” 

But  the  King  would  take  no  refusal.  Calling  Anselm  to  his 
bedside,  he  forced  the  staff  of  office  into  his  hands.  Anselm 
became  the  champion  of  the  freedom  of  the  Church.  But  when 
the  King  recovered,  he  resumed  his  old  practices  and  treated  the 
archbishop  with  such  insult  that  he  finally  left  the  country. 

182.  William’s  Merit.  — William’s  one  merit  was  that  he  kept 
England  from  being  devoured  piecemeal  by  the  Norman  barons, 
who  regarded  her  as  a  pack  of  hounds  in  full  chase  regard  the 
hare  about  falling  into  their  rapacious  jaws. 

Like  his  father,  he  insisted  on  keeping  the  English  Church  inde¬ 
pendent  of  the  ever-growing  power  of  Rome.  In  both  cases  his 
motives  were  purely  selfish,  but  the  result  to  the  country  was  good. 

183.  His  Death.  —  His  pow'er  came  suddenly  to  an  end  (1 100). 
He  had  gone  in  the  morning  to  hunt  in  the  New'  Forest  (§  167) 
with  his  brother  Henry.  He  was  found  lying  dead  among  the 
bushes,  pierced  by  an  arrow  shot  by  an  unknown  hand. 

William’s  character  speaks  in  his  deeds.  It  w'as  hard,  cold, 
despotic,  yet  in  judging  it  wre  should  consider  the  words  of  Fuller, 
“  No  pen  hath  originally  w'ritten  the  life  of  this  King  but  what  w'as 
made  with  a  monkish  penknife,  and  no  winder  if  his  picture  seem 
bad,  which  was  thus  drawm  by  his  enemy.” 


1087-1100]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


7* 


184.  Summary.  —  Notwithstanding  William’s  oppression  of 
both  Church  and  people,  his  reign  checked  the  revolt  of  the 
baronage  and  prevented  the  kingdom  from  falling  into  anarchy 
like  that  existing  on  the  continent. 

HENRY  I  — 1100-1135 

185.  Henry’s  Charter.  —  Henry,  third  son  of  William  the  Con¬ 
queror,  was  the  first  of  the  Norman  kings  who  was  born  and  edu¬ 
cated  in  England.  Foreseeing  a  renewal  of  the  contest  with  the 
barOns  (§  179),  he  issued  a  charter1  of  liberties  on  his  accession, 
by  which  he  bound  himself  to  reform  the  abuses  which  had  been 
practised  by  his  brother  William  Rufus.  The  King  sent  a  hun¬ 
dred  copies  of  this  important  document  to  the  leading  abbots 
and  bishops  for  preservation  in  their  respective  monasteries  and 
cathedrals  (§  82). 

As  this  charter  was  the  earliest  written  and  formal  guarantee  of 
good  government  ever  given  by  the  Crown  to  the  nation,  it  marks 
an  important  epoch  in  English  history.  It  may  be  compared  to  the 
platforms  or  statements  of  principles  issued  by  our  modern  political 
parties.  It  was  a  virtual  admission  that  the  time  had  come  when 
even  a  Norman  sovereign  could  not  dispense  with  the  support  of  the 
country.  It  was  therefore  an  admission  of  the  truth  that  while  a 
people  can  exist  without  a  king,  no  king  can  exist  without  a  people. 

Furthermore,  this  charter  established  a  precedent  for  those 
which  were  to  follow,  and  which  reached  a  final  development  in 
the  Great  Charter  wrested  from  the  unwilling  hand  of  King  John 
somewhat  more  than  a  century  later  (§  247).  Henry  further 
strengthened  his  position  with  his  English  subjects  by  his  mar- 
’  riage  with  Maud,  niece  of  the  Saxon  Edgar,  a  direct  descendant 
of  King  Alfred  (§  90). 

1  Charter  (literally,  parchment  or  paper  on  which  anything  may  be'written)  :  a 
royal  charter  is  a  writing  bearing  the  king’s  seal  by  which  he  confers  or  secures 
certain  rights  and  privileges  to  those  to  whom  it  is  granted.  Henry’s  charter 
guaranteed:  1.  The  rights  of  the  Church  (which  William  Rufus  had  constantly  vio¬ 
lated).  2.  The  rights  of  the  nobles  and  landholders  against  extortion.  3.  The  right 
of  all  classes  to  be  governed  by  the  old  English  law  with  William  the  Conqueror’s 
improvements.  And  see  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix,  page  vi,  §  7. 


72 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1100-1135 


186.  The  Appointment  of  Bishops  settled.  —  Henry  also  re¬ 
called  Anselm  ( §  181)  and  reinstated  him  in  his  office.  But  the 
peace  was  of  short  duration.  The  archbishop  insisted  with  the 
Pope  that  the  power  of  appointment  of  bishops  should  be  vested 
wholly  in  Rome.  The  King  was  equally  determined  that  such 
appointments  should  spring  from  himself.  “  No  one,”  said  he, 

“  shall  remain  in  my  land  who  will  not  do  me  homage  ”  ( §  122). 

The  quarrel  was  eventually  settled  by  compromise.  The  Pope 
was  to  invest  the  bishop  with  the  ring  and  crozier,  or  pastoral 
staff  of  office,  as  emblems  of  the  spiritual  power;  the  King, .011 
the  other  hand,  was  to  grant  the  lands  from  which  the  bishop 
drew  his  revenues,  and  in  return  was  to  receive  his  homage  or  . 
oath  of  allegiance. 

This  acknowledgment  of  royal  authority  by  the  Church  was  of 
great  importance,  since  it  gave  the  King  power  as  feudal  lord  to 
demand  from  each  bishop  his  quota  of  fully  equipped  knights  or 
cavalry  soldiers  (§§  200,  202). 

187.  Henry’s  Quarrel  with  Robert ;  the  “  Lion  of  Justice.”  — 

While  this  church  question  was  in  dispute,  Henry  had  still  more 
pressing  matters  to  attend  to.  His  elder  brother  Robert  had 
invaded  England  and  demanded  the  crown.  The  greater  part  of 
the  Norman  nobles  supported  this  claim ;  but  the  English  people 
held  to  Henry.  Finally,  in  consideration  of  a  heavy  money  pay¬ 
ment,  Robert  agreed  to  return  to  Normandy  and  leave  his  brother 
in  full  possession  of  the  realm. 

On  his  departure,  Henry  resolved  to  drive  out  the  prominent 
nobles  who  had  aided  Robert.  Of  these,  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury, 
called  “  Robert  the  Devil,”  was  the  leader.  With  the  aid  of  the 
English,  who  hated  him  for  his  cruelty,  the  earl  was  at  last  * 
compelled  to  leave  the  country. 

He  fled  to  Normandy,  and,  in  violation  of  a  previous  agree¬ 
ment,  was  received  by  Henry’s  brother  Robert.  Upon  that, 
Henry  declared  war,  and,  crossing  the  Channel,  fought  (1106) 
the  battle  of  Tinchebrai,1  by  which  he  conquered  and  held 

1  Tinchebrai,  Normandy,  about  midway  between  Caen  and  Avranches.  See  map 
No.  8,  facing  page  88. 


1 100-1135]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


73 


Normandy  as  completely  as  Normandy  had  once  conquered 
England.  The  King  carried  his  brother  captive  to  Wales,  and 
kept  him  in  prison  during  his  life  in  Cardiff  Castle.  This  ended 
the  contest  with  the  nobles. 

By  his  uprightness,  his  decision,  his  courage,  and  by  his  organi¬ 
zation  of  better  courts  (§  197),  Henry  fairly  won  the  honorable 
title  of  the  “  Lion  of  Justice  ”  ;  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle 
says,  “  No  man  durst  misdo  against  another  in  his  time.”  1 

188.  Summary. — The  three  leading  points  of  Henry’s  reign 
are:  1.  The  self-limitation  of  the  royal  power  embodied  in  the 
charter  of  liberties.  2.  The  settlement  of  old  disputes  between 
the  King  and  the  Church.  3.  The  banishment  of  the  chief  of  the 
mutinous  barons,  and  the  victory  of  Tinchebrai,  with  its  results. 

STEPHEN  —  1 135-1 154 

189.  The  Rival  Candidates. — With  Henry’s  death  two  candi¬ 
dates  presented  themselves  for  the  throne,  —  Henry’s  daughter, 
Matilda  (for  he  left  no  lawful  son),  and  his  nephew,  Stephen.  In 
France  the  custom  of  centuries  had  determined  that  the  crown 
should  never  descend  to  a  female.  It  was  an  age  when  the  sover¬ 
eign  was  expected  to  lead  his  army  in  person,  and  it  certainly  was 
not  expedient  that  a  woman  should  hold  a  position  one  of  whose 
chief  duties  she  could  not  discharge.  This  French  custom  had, 
of  course,  no  force  in  England  ;  but  the  Norman  nobles  must  have 
recognized  its  reasonableness ;  or  if  not,  the  people  did.2 

Four  years  after  Stephen’s  accession  Matilda  landed  in  England 
and  claimed  the  crown.  The  East  of  England  stood  by  Stephen, 
the  West  by  Matilda.  For  the  sake  of  promoting  discord,  and 
through  discord  their  own  private  ends,  part  of  the  barons  gave 
their  support  to  Matilda,  while  the  rest  refused,  as  they  said,  to 

1  See,  too,  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  Appendix,  page  vi,  §  7. 

2  Before  Henry’s  death,  the  baronage  had  generally  sworn  to  support  Matilda 
(commonly  called  the  Empress  Matilda,  or  Maud,  from  her  marriage  to  the  Emperor 
Henry  V  of  Germany;  later,  she  married  Geoffrey  of  Anjou).  But  Stephen,  with 
the  help  of  London  and  the  Church,  declared  himself  “  elected  King  by  the  assent  of 
the  clergy  and  the  people Many  of  the  barons  now  gave  Stephen  their  support. 


74  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1135-1154 


“  hold  their  estates  under  a  distaff.”  In  the  absence  of  any 
Witan  or  National  Council  (§  117),  London  unanimously  chose 
Stephen  King  (1135). 

The  fatal  defect  in  the  new  King  was  the  absence  of  executive 
ability.  Following  the  example  of  Henry  (§  185),  he  issued  two 
charters  or  pledges  of  good  government ;  but  without  power 
to  carry  them  out,  they  proved  simply  waste  paper. 

190.  The  Battle  of  the  Standard  (1138).  —  David  I  of  Scot¬ 
land,  Matilda’s  uncle,  espoused  her  cause  and  invaded  England  with 
a  powerful  force.  He  was  met  at  North  Allerton,  in  Yorkshire,  by 
the  party  of  Stephen,  and  the  Battle  of  the  Standard  was  fought. 

The  leaders  of  the  English  were  both  churchmen,  who  showed 
that  on  occasion  they  could  fight  as  vigorously  as  they  could  pray. 
The  standard  consisted  of  four  consecrated  banners,  surmounted 
by  a  cross.  This  was  set  up  on  a  wagon,  on  which  one  of  the 
bishops  stood.  The  sight  of  this  sacred  standard  made  the  English 
invincible. 

After  a  fierce  contest  the  Scots  were  driven  from  the  field. 
It  is  said  that  this  was  the  first  battle  in  which  the  English  peas¬ 
ants  used  the  long-bow ;  they  had  taken  the  hint,  perhaps,  from 
the  Normans  at  the  battle  of  Hastings  (§  149).  Many  years 
later,  their  skill  in  foreign  war  made  that  weapon  as  famous  as  it 
was  effective  (§  290). 

191.  Civil  War  (1138-1153).  —  For  fifteen  years  following, 
the  country  was  torn  by  civil  war.  While  it  raged,  fortified 
castles,  which,  under  William  the  Conqueror,  had  been  built  and 
occupied  by  the  King  only,  or  by  those  whom  he  could  trust,  now 
arose  on  every  side.  These  became,  as  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chron¬ 
icle  declares,  “  very  nests  of  devils  and  dens  of  thieves.”  More 
than  a  thousand  of  these  castles,  it  is  said,  were  built.  The 
armed  bands  who  inhabited  them  levied  tribute  on  the  whole 
country  around. 

Not  satisfied  with  that,  they  seized  those  who  were  suspected 
of  having  property,  and,  to  use  the  words  of  the  Chronicle  again, 
“  tortured  them  with  pains  unspeakable  ;  for  some  they  hung  up 
by  the  feet  and  smoked  with  foul  smoke  ;  others  they  crushed  in 


35-HS4]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


75 


a  narrow  chest  with  sharp  stones.  About  the  heads  of  others  they 
bound  knotted  cords  until  they  went  into  the  brain.”  “Thou¬ 
sands  died  of  hunger,  the  towns  were  burned,  and  the  soil  left 
untilled.  By  such  deeds  the  land  was  ruined,  and  men  said  openly 
that  Christ  and  his  saints  were  asleep.” 

The  sleep,  however,  was  not  always  to  last ;  for  in  the  next 
reign,  Justice,  in  the  person  of  Henry  II,  effectually  vindicated 
her  power.  The  strife  for  the  crown  continued  till  the  last  year 
of  Stephen’s  reign.  Then  the  Church  came  to  the  rescue,  and 
through  its  powerful  influence  the  Treaty  of  Wallingford 1  was 
made.  By  that  treaty  it  was  agreed  that  Matilda’s  son  Henry 
should  succeed  him. 

192.  Summary.  — Stephen  was  the  last  of  the  Norman  kings. 
Their  reign  had  covered  nearly  a  century.  The  period  began  in 
conquest  and  usurpation ;  it  ended  in  gloom.  We  are  not,  how¬ 
ever,  to  judge  it  by  Stephen’s  reign  alone,  but  as  a  whole. 

Thus  considered,  it  shows  at  least  one  point  of  advance  over 
the  preceding  period,  —  the  triumph  of  the  moral  power  of  the 
Church  over  feudal  anarchy.  But  Stephen’s  reign  was  not  all 
loss  in  other  respects,  for  out  of  the  “  war,  wickedness,  and 
waste  ”  of  his  misgovernment  came  a  universal  desire  for  peace 
through  law.  Thus  indirectly  his  very  inefficiency  prepared  the 
way  for  future  reforms. 

— 

GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  NORMAN  PERIOD  (1066  1154) 

I.  GOVERNMENT.  —  II.  RELIGION.  —  1 1 1.  MILITARY  AFFAIRS. - 

IV.  LITERATURE,  LEARNING,  AND  ART.  —  V.  GENERAL  INDUS¬ 
TRY  AND  COMMERCE. - VI.  MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND 

CUSTOMS. 

GOVERNMENT 

193.  The  King.  —  We  have  seen  that  the  Saxons,  or  Early  Eng¬ 
lish  rulers,  in  the  case  of  Egbert  and  his  successors,  styled  them¬ 
selves  “  Kings  of  the  English,”  or  leaders  of  a  race  or  people.  The 
Norman  sovereigns  made  no  immediate  change  in  this  title,  but  as 

1  Wallingford,  Berkshire  (west  of  London). 


j6  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1154 


a  matter  of  fact  William,  toward  the  close  of  his  reign,  claimed  the 
whole  of  the  country  as  his  own  by  right  of  conquest. 

For  this  reason  he  and  his  Norman  successors  might  properly 
have  called  themselves  “  Kings  of  England  that  is,  supreme  owners 
of  the  soil  and  rulers  over  it,  a  title  which  was  formally  assumed  about 
fifty  years  later  (in  John’s  reign). 

194.  The  National  Council. — Associated  with  the  King  in  govern¬ 
ment  was  the  Great  or  National  Council,  made  up  of,  first,  the  arch¬ 
bishops,  bishops,  and  abbots ;  and,  secondly,  the  earls  and  barons ; 
that  is,  of  all  the  great  landholders  holding  directly  from  the  Crown. 
The  National  Council  usually  met  three  times  a  year,  —  at  Christ¬ 
mas,  Easter,  and  Whitsuntide.  All  laws  were  held  to  be  made  by 
the  King,  acting  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  this  Council,  but 
practically  the  King  alone  often  enacted  such  laws  as  he  saw  fit. 

When  a  new  sovereign  came  to  the  throne,  it  was  with  the  consent 
or  by  the  election  of  the  National  Council,  but  their  choice  was  gen¬ 
erally  limited  to  some  one  of  the  late  King’s  sons,  and  unless  there 
was  good  reason  for  making  a  different  selection,  the  oldest  was 
chosen.  Finally  the  right  of  imposing  taxes  rested,  theoretically  at 
least,  in  the  King  and  Council,  but,  in  fact,  the  King  himself  frequently 
levied  them.  This  action  of  the  King  was  a  cause  of  constant  irrita¬ 
tion  and  of  frequent  insurrection. 

195.  The  Private  or  King’s  Council.  —  There  was  also  a  second 
and  permanent  council,  called  the  King’s  Council.  The  three  lead¬ 
ing  officers  of  this  were:  First,  the  Chief  Justice,  who  superintended 
the  execution  of  the  laws,  represented  the  King,  and  ruled  for  him 
during  his  absence  from  the  country.  Secondly,  the  Lord  Chancel¬ 
lor  (so  called  from  caticelli ,  the  screen  behind  which  he  sat  with  his 
clerks),  who  acted  as  the  King’s  adviser  and  confidential  secretary, 
and  as  keeper  of  the  Great  Seal,  with  which  he  stamped  all  important 
papers.1  Thirdly,  the  Lord  High  Treasurer,  who  took  charge  of  the 
King’s  revenue,  received  all  moneys  due  the  Crown,  and  kept  the 
King’s  treasure  in  the  vaults  at  Winchester  or  Westminster. 

196.  Tallies.  —  All  accounts  were  kept  by  the  Treasurer  on  tallies 
or  small  sticks,  notched  on  the  opposite  sides  to  represent  different 

1  The  Chancellor  was  also  called  the  “  Keeper  of  the  King’s  Conscience,”  because 
entrusted  with  the  duty  of  redressing  those  grievances  of  the  King’s  subjects  which 
required  royal  interference.  The  Court  of  Chancery  (mentioned  §  197,  note  2) 
grew  out  of  this  office. 


io66-i 154] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


77 


sums.  These  were  split  lengthwise.  One  was  given  as  a  receipt  to 
the  sheriff,  or  other  person  paying  in  money  to  the  treasury,  while  the 
duplicate  of  this  tally  was  held  by  the  Treasurer.  This  primitive 
method  of  keeping  royal  accounts  remained  legally  in  force  until 
1785,  in  the  reign  of  George  III. 

197.  Curia  Regis,1  or  the  King’s  Court  of  Justice.  —  The  Chief 
Justice  and  Chancellor  were  generally  chosen  by  the  King  from  among 
the  clergy  ;  first,  because  the  clergy  were  men  of  education,  while 
the  barons  were  not;  and,  next,  because  it  was  not  expedient  to 
entrust  too  much  power  to  the  barons.  These  officials,  with  the 
other  members  of  the  Private  Council,  constituted  the  King’s  High 
Court  of  Justice. 

It  followed  the  King  as  he  moved  from  place  to  place,  to  hear 
and  decide  cases  carried  up  by  appeal  from  the  county  courts, 
together  with  other  questions  of  importance.2  In  local  government 
the  country  remained  under  the  Normans  essentially  the  same  that 
it  had  been  before  the  Conquest.  The  King  continued  to  be  repre¬ 
sented  in  each  county  by  an  officer  called  the  Sheriff,  who  collected 
the  taxes  and  enforced  the  laws. 

198.  Trial  by  Battle.  —  In  the  administration  of  justice,  Trial  by 
Battle  was  introduced  in  addition  to  the  Ordeal  of  the  Saxons.  This 
was  a  duel  in  which  each  of  the  contestants  appealed  to  Heaven  to 
give  him  the  victory,  it  being  believed  that  the  right  would  vanquish. 
Noblemen3  fought  on  horseback  in  full  armor,  with  sword,  lance,  and 
battle-axe;  common  people  fought  on  foot  with  clubs. 

In  both  cases  the  combat  was  in  the  presence  of  judges  and  might 


1  Curia  Regis :  this  name  was  given,  at  different  times,  first,  to  the  National 
Council:  secondly,  to  the  King’s  Private  Council;  and,  lastly,  to  the  High  Court  of 
Justice,  consisting  of  members  of  the  Private  Council. 

2  The  King’s  High  Court  of  Justice  (Curia  Regis)  was  divided,  about  1215,  into 
three  distinct  courts:  1.  The  Exchequer  Court  (so  called  from  the  chequered  cloth 
which  covered  the  table  of  the  court,  and  which  was  probably  made  useful  in  count¬ 
ing  money),  which  dealt  with  cases  of  finance  and  revenue.  2.  The  Court  of  Com¬ 
mon  Pleas,  which  had  jurisdiction  in  civil  suits  between  subject  and  subject.  3.  The 
Court  of  King’s  Bench,  which  transacted  the  remaining  business,  both  civil  and 
criminal,  and  had  special  jurisdiction  over  all  inferior  courts  and  civil  corporations. 

Later,  a  fourth  court,  that  of  Chancery  (see  §  195,  and  note),  over  which  the 
Lord  Chancellor  presided,  was  established  as  a  court  of  appeal  and  equity,  to  deal 
with  cases  where  the  common  law  gave  no  relief. 

3  See  Shakespeare’s  Richard  II,  Act  I,  Scenes  1  and  3;  also  Scott’s  Ivanhoe, 
Chapter  XLIII. 


78  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1154 


last  from  sunrise  until  the  stars  appeared.  Priests  and  women  had 
the  privilege  of  being  represented  by  champions,  who  fought  for 
them.  Trial  by  battle  was  claimed  and  allowed  by  the  court 
(though  the  combat  did  not  come  off)  as  late  as  1817,  reign  of 
George  III.  This  custom  was  finally  abolished  in  18 19.1 

199.  Divisions  of  Society.  —  The  divisions  of  society  remained 
after  the  Conquest  nearly  as  before,  but  the  Saxon  orders  of  nobility, 
with  a  few  very  rare  exceptions,  were  deprived  of  their  rank  and 
their  estates  given  to  the  Normans. 

It  is  important  to  notice  here  the  marked  difference  between  the 
new  or  Norman  nobility  and  that  of  France. 

In  England  a  man  was  considered  noble  because,  under  William 
and  his  successors,  he  was  a  member  of  the  National  Council,  or,  in  the 
case  of  an  earl,  because  he  represented  the  King  in  the  government 
of  a  county  or  earldom. 

His  position  did  not  exempt  him  from  taxation,  nor  did  his  rank 
descend  to  more  than  one  of  his  children.  In  France,  on  the  contrary, 
the  aristocracy  were  noble  by  birth,  not  office  ;  they  were  generally 
exempt  from  taxation,  thus  throwing  the  whole  of  that  burden  on  the 
people,  and  their  rank  descended  to  all  their  children. 

During  the  Norman  period  a  change  was  going  on  among  the 
slaves,  whose  condition  gradually  improved.  On  the  other  hand,  many 
who  had  been  free  now  sank  into  that  state  of  villeinage  which,  as  it 
bound  them  to  the  soil,  was  but  one  remove  from  actual  slavery. 

The  small,  free  landholders  who  still  existed  were  mostly  in  the  old 
Danish  territory  north  of  Watling  Street,  or  in  Kent  in  the  south. 

200.  Tenure  of  Land  (Military  Service,  Feudal  Dues,  National 
Militia).  —  All  land  was  held  directly  or  indirectly  from  the  King  on 
condition  of  military  or  other  service.  The  number  of  chief-tenants 
who  derived  their  title  from  the  Crown,  including  ecclesiastical  digni¬ 
taries,  was  probably  about  1500.  These  constituted  the  Norman 
barons.  The  under-tenants  were  about  8000,  and  consisted  chiefly  of 
the  English  who  had  been  driven  out  from  their  estates. 

Every  holder  of  land  was  obliged  to  furnish  the  King  a  fully  armed 
and  mounted  soldier,  to  serve  for  forty  days  during  the  year  for  each 
piece  of  land  bringing  £20  annually,  or  about  $ 2000  in  modern 

1  Trial  by  battle  might  be  demanded  in  cases  of  chivalry  or  honor,  in  criminal 
actions  and  in  civil  suits.  The  last  were  fought  not  by  the  disputants  themselves 
but  by  champions. 


1066-1154]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


79 


money1  (the  pound  of  that  day  probably  representing  twenty  times 
that  sum  now).  All  chief-tenants  were  also  bound  to  attend  the 
King’s  Great  Council  three  times  a  year,  —  at  Christmas,  Easter,  and 
Whitsuntide. 

Feudal  Dues  or  Taxes.  Every  free  tenant  was  obliged  to  pay  a 
sum  of  money  to  the  King  or  baron  from  whom  he  held  his  land, 
on  three  special  occasions:  i.  To  ransom  his  lord  from  captivity 
in  case  he  was  made  a  prisoner  of  war.  2.  To  defray  the  expense 
of  making  his  lord’s  eldest  son  a  knight.  3.  To  provide  a  suitable 
marriage  portion  on  the  marriage  of  his  lord’s  eldest  daughter. 

In  addition  to  these  taxes,  or  “aids,”  as  they  were  called,  there 
were  other  demands  which  the  lord  might  make,  such  as  :  1.  A  year’s 
profits  of  the  land  from  the  heir,  on  his  coming  into  possession  of  his 
father’s  estate  ;  this  was  called  a  7'clief.  2.  The  income  from  the 
lands  of  orphan  heirs  not  of  age.  3.  Payment  for  privilege  of 
disposing  of  land.2 

In  case  of  an  orphan  heiress  not  of  age,  the  feudal  lord  became  her 
guardian  and  might  select  a  suitable  husband  for  her.  Should  the 
heiress  reject  the  person  selected,  she  forfeited  a  sum  of  money  equal 
to  the  amount  the  lord  expected  to  receive  by  the  proposed  marriage. 
Thus  we  find  one  woman  in  Ipswich  giving  a  large  fee  for  the  privi¬ 
lege  of  “  not  being  married  except  to  her  own  good  liking.”  In  the 
collection  of  these  “  aids  ”  and  “  reliefs,”  great  extortion  was  often 
practised  both  by  the  King  and  the  barons. 

In  addition  to  the  feudal  troops  there  was  a  national  militia,  con¬ 
sisting  of  peasants  and  others  not  provided  with  armor,  who  fought 
on  foot  with  bows  and  spears.  These  could  also  be  called  on 
as  during  the  Saxon  period.  In  some  cases  of  revolt  of  the  barons, 
for  instance,  under  William  Rufus,  this  national  militia  proved  of 
immense  service  to  the  Crown. 

The  great  landholders  let  out  part  of  their  estates  to  tenants  on 
similar  terms  to  those  on  which  they  held  their  own,  and  in  this  way 

1  This  amount  does  not  appear  to  have  been  fully  settled  until  the  period  follow¬ 
ing  the  Norman  kings,  but  the  principle  was  recognized  by  William. 

2  The  clergy,  being  a  corporate,  and  hence  an  ever-living  body,  were  exempt  from 
these  last  demands.  Not  satisfied  with  this,  they  were  constantly  endeavoring,  with 
more  or  less  success,  to  escape  all  feudal  obligations,  on  the  ground  that  they  ren¬ 
dered  the  State  divine  service.  In  1106,  reign  of  Henry  I,  it  was  settled,  for  the 
time,  that  the  bishops  were  to  do  homage  to  the  King,  i.e.,  furnish  military  service 
for  the  lands  they  received  from  him  as  their  feudal  lord.  See  §  1S6. 


80  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1154 


the  entire  country  was  divided  up.  The  lowest  class  of  tenants  were 
villeins  or  serfs,  who  held  small  pieces  of  land  on  condition  of  per¬ 
forming  labor  for  it.  These  were  bound  to  the  soil  and  could  be  sold 
with  it,  but  were  not  wholly  destitute  of  legal  rights. 

Under  William  I  and  his  successors,  all  free  tenants,  of  whatever 
grade,  were  bound  to  uphold  the  King,  and  in  case  of  insurrection  or 
civil  war  to  serve  under  him.1  In  this  most  important  respect  the 
great  landholders  of  England  differed  from  those  of  the  continent, 
where  the  lesser  tenants  were  bound  only  to  serve  their  masters,  and 
might,  and  in  fact  often  did,  take  up  arms  against  the  King.  William 
removed  this  serious  defect.  By  doing  so  he  did  the  country  an 
incalculable  service.  He  completed  the  organization  of  feudal  land- 
tenure,  but  he  never  established  the  continental  system  of  feudal 
government.  (See,  too,  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix, 
page  v,  §  6.) 

RELIGION 

201.  The  Church.  —  With  respect  to  the  organization  of  the  Church, 
no  changes  were  made  under  the  Norman  kings.  They,  however, 
generally  deposed  the  English  bishops  and  substituted  Normans  or 
foreigners,  who,  as  a  class,  were  superior  in  education  to  the 
English.  It  came  to  be  pretty  clearly  understood  at  this  time  that 
the  Church  was  subordinate  to  the  King,  and  that  in  all  cases  of 
dispute  about  temporal  matters,  he,  and  not  the  Pope,  was  to 
decide.  During  the  Norman  period  great  numbers  of  monasteries 
were  built. 

The  most  important  action  taken  by  William  was  the  establishment 
of  ecclesiastical  courts  in  which  all  cases  relating  to  the  Church  and 
the  clergy  were  tried  by  the  bishops  according  to  laws  of  their  own. 
Under  these  laws  persons  wearing  the  dress  of  a  monk  or  priest,  or 
who  could  manage  to  spell  out  a  verse  of  the  Psalms,  and  so  pass  for 
ecclesiastics,  would  claim  the  right  to  be  tried,  and,  as  the  punish¬ 
ments  which  the  Church  inflicted  were  notoriously  mild,  the  conse¬ 
quence  was  that  the  majority  of  criminals  escaped  the  penalty  of 
their  evil  doings.  So  great  was  the  abuse  of  this  privilege,  that, 
at  a  later  period,  Henry  II  made  an  attempt  to  reform  it;  but  it 
was  not  finally  done  away  with  until  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century. 


1  See  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix,  pages  iii-v,  §§  5,  6. 


A  MANOR  OR  TOWNSHIP  HELD  BY  A  LORD,  NORMAN  PERIOD 
(The  building  is  Ludlow  Castle,  Shropshire.) 

The  inhabitants  of  a  manor,  or  the  estate  of  a  lord,  were:  i.  The  lord  himself, 
or  his  representative,  who  held  his  estate  on  condition  of  furnishing  the  king  a  certain 
number  of  armed  men.  (See  §§  160,  200.)  2.  The  lord’s  personal  followers,  who 

lived  with  him,  and  usually  a  parish  priest  or  a  number  of  monks.  3.  The  villeins, 
bound  to  the  soil,  who  could  not  leave  the  manor,  were  not  subject  to  military  duty, 
and  who  paid  rent  in  labor  or  produce ;  there  might  also  be  a  few  slaves,  but  this  last 
class  gradually  rose  to  the  partial  freedom  of  villeinage.  4.  Certain  sokemen  or  free 
tenants,  who  were  subject  to  military  duty,  but  were  not  bound  to  remain  on  the 
manor,  and  who  paid  a  fixed  rent  in  money,  or  otherwise. 

Next  to  the  manor  house  (where  courts  were  also  held)  the  most  important  build¬ 
ings  were  the  church  (used  sometimes  for  markets  and  town  meetings) ;  the  lord’s 
mill  (if  there  was  a  stream),  in  which  all  tenants  must  grind  their  grain  and  pay 
for  the  grinding ;  and  finally,  the  cottages  of  the  tenants,  gathered  in  a  village  near 
the  mill. 

The  land  was  divided  as  follows:  1.  The  demesne  (or  domain)  surrounding  the 
manor  house.  This  was  strictly  private  —  the  lord’s  ground.  2.  The  land  outside 


the  demesne,  suitable  for  cultivation.  This  was  let  in  strips,  usually  of  thirty  acres, 
but  was  subject  to  certain  rules  in  regard  to  methods  of  tillage  and  crops.  3.  A  piece 
of  land  which  was  divided  into  fenced  fields,  called  “closes”  (because  enclosed),  and 
which  tenants  might  hire  and  use  as  they  saw  fit.  4.  Common  pasture,  open  to  all 
tenants  to  pasture  their  cattle  on.  5.  Waste  or  untilled  land,  where  all  tenants  had 
the  right  to  cut  turf  for  fuel,  or  gather  plants  or  shrubs  for  fodder.  6.  The  forest  or 
woodland,  where  all  tenants  had  the  right  to  turn  their  hogs  out  to  feed  on  acorns, 
and  where  they  might  also  collect  a  certain  amount  of  small  wood  for  fuel. 
7.  Meadow  land  on  which  tenants  might  hire  the  right  to  cut  grass  and  make  hay. 
On  the  above  plan  the  fields  of  tenants  —  both  those  of  villeins  and  of  sokemen  — 
are  marked  by  the  letters  A,  B,  C,  etc. 

If  the  village  grew  to  be  a  thriving  manufacturing  or  trading  town,  the  tenants 
might,  in  time,  purchase  from  the  lord  the  right  to  manage  their  own  affairs  in  great 
measure,  and  so  become  a  free  town  in  a  considerable  degree.  (See  §  234.) 


1066-1154]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS 

202.  The  Army.  —  The  army  consisted  of  cavalry,  or  knights,  and 
foot-soldiers.  The  former  were  almost  wholly  Normans.  They  wore 
armor  similar  to  that  used  by  the  Saxons.  It  is  represented  in  the 
pictures  of  the  Bayeux  Tapestry  (see  §  205),  and  appears  to  have 
consisted  of  leather  or  stout  linen,  on  which  pieces  of  bone,  or  scales, 
or  rings  of  iron  were  securely  sewed.  Later,  these  rings  of  iron  were 
set  up  edgewise,  and  interlinked,  or  the  scales  made  to  overlap.  The 
helmet  was  pointed,  and  had  a  piece  in  front  to  protect  the  nose. 
The  shield  was  long  and  kite-shaped. 

The  weapons  of  this  class  of  soldiers  consisted  of  a  lance  and  a 
double-edged  sword.  The  foot-soldiers  wore  little  or  no  armor  and 
fought  principally  with  long-bows.  Incase  of  need,  the  King  could 
probably  muster  about  ten  thousand  knights,  or  armed  horsemen, 
and  a  much  larger  force  of  foot-soldiers.  Under  the  Norman  kings 
the  principal  wars  were  insurrections  against  William  I,  the  various 
revolts  of  the  barons,  and  the  civil  war  under  Stephen. 

203.  Knighthood.1  —  Candidates  for  knighthood  were  usually 
obliged  to  pass  through  a  long  course  of  training  under  the  care 
of  some  distinguished  noble.  The  candidate  served  first  as  a  page, 
then  as  a  squire  or  attendant,  following  his  master  to  the  wars.  After 
seven  years  in  this  capacity,  he  prepared  himself  for  receiving  the 
honors  of  knighthood  by  spending  several  days  in  a  church,  engaged 
in  solemn  religious  rites,  fasting,  and  prayer. 

The  young  man,  in  the  presence  of  his  friends  and  kindred,  then 
made  oath  to  be  loyal  to  the  King,  to  defend  religion,  and  to  be  the 
champion  of  every  lady  in  danger  or  distress.  Next,  a  high-born 
dame  or  great  warrior  buckled  on  his  spurs,  and  girded  the  sword, 
which  the  priest  had  blessed,  to  his  side.  This  done,  he  knelt  to 
the  prince  or  noble  who  was  to  perform  the  final  ceremony.  The 
prince  struck  him  lightly  on  the  shoulder  with  the  flat  of  the  sword, 

1  Knighthood :  originally  the  knight  (cniht)  was  a  youth  or  attendant.  Later, 
the  word  came  to  mean  an  armed  horse-soldier  or  cavalier  who  had  received  his 
weapons  and  title  in  a  solemn  manner.  Those  whom  the  English  called  knights 
the  Normans  called  chevaliers  (literally,  horsemen),  and  as  only  the  wealthy  and 
noble  could,  as  a  rule,  afford  the  expense  of  a  horse  and  armor,  chivalry,  or  knight¬ 
hood,  came  in  time  to  be  closely  connected  with  the  idea  of  aristocracy.  Besides  the 
method  described  above,  soldiers  were  sometimes  made  knights  on  the  battle-field 
as  a  reward  for  valor. 


82  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1154 


saying,  “  In  the  name  of  God,  St.  Michael,1  and  St.  George  [the 
patron  saint  of  England],  I  dub  thee  knight.  Be  brave,  hardy,  and 
loyal.” 

Then  the  young  cavalier  leaped  into  the  saddle  and  galloped  up 
and  down,  brandishing  his  weapons  in  token  of  strength  and  skill. 
In  case  a  knight  proved  false  to  his  oaths,  he  was  publicly  degraded. 
His  spurs  were  taken  from  him,  his  shield  reversed,  his  armor  broken 
to  pieces,  and  a  sermon  preached  upon  him  in  the  neighboring  church, 
proclaiming  him  dead  to  the  order. 

LITERATURE,  LEARNING,  AND  ART 

204.  Education.  —  The  learning  of  this  period  was  confined 
almost  wholly  to  the  clergy.  Whatever  schools  existed  were  con¬ 
nected  with  the  monasteries  and  nunneries.  Very  few  books  were 
written.  Generally  speaking,  the  nobility  considered  fighting  the 
great  business  of  life  and  cared  nothing  for  education.  To  read 
or  write  was  beneath  their  dignity.  Such  accomplishments  they 
left  to  monks,  priests,  and  lawyers.  For  this  reason  seals  or  stamps 
having  some  device  or  signature  engraved  on  them  came  to  be  used 
on  all  papers  of  importance. 

205.  Historical  Works.  —  The  chief  books  written  in  England 
under  the  Norman  kings  were  histories.  Of  these,  the  most  note¬ 
worthy  were  the  continuation  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  in  Eng¬ 
lish  and  the  chronicles  of  William  of  Malmesbury  and  Henry  of 
Huntingdon  in  Latin.2  William’s  book  and  the  Saxon  Chronicle 
still  continue  to  be  of  great  importance  to  students  of  this  period. 
Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  Bayeux  Tapestry  (§  152),  a 
history  of  the  Norman  Conquest  worked  in  colored  worsteds,  on  a 
long  strip  of  narrow  canvas. 

It  consists  of  a  series  of  seventy-two  scenes,  or  pictures,  done 
about  the  time  of  William’s  accession.  Some  have  supposed  it  to 
be  the  work  of  his  Queen,  Matilda.  The  entire  length  is  two 
hundred  and  fourteen  feet  and  the  width  about  twenty  inches.  It 
represents  events  in  English  history  from  the  last  of  Edward  the 

1  St.  Michael,  as  representative  of  the  triumphant  power  of  good  over  evil. 

2  Among  the  historical  works  of  this  period  may  be  included  Geoffrey  of  Mon¬ 
mouth’s  History  of  the  Britons,  in  Latin,  a  book  whose  chief  value  is  in  the  curious 
romances  with  which  it  abounds,  especially  those  relating  to  King  Arthur.  It  is  the 
basis  of  Tennyson’s  poem  of  the  Idylls  of  the  King. 


1066-1154]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


83 


Confessor’s  reign  to  the  battle  of  Hastings.  As  a  guide  to  a  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  armor,  weapons,  and  costume  of  the  period,  it  is  of  very 
great  value. 

206.  Architecture.  —  Under  the  Norman  sovereigns  there  was 
neither  painting,  statuary,  nor  poetry  worthy  of  mention.  The  spirit 
that  creates  these  arts  found  expression  in  architecture  introduced 
from  the  continent.  The  castle,  cathedral,  and  minster,  with  here 
and  there  an  exceptional  structure  like  London  Bridge  and  the  Great 
Hall  at  Westminster,  built  by  William  Rufus,  were  the  buildings 
which  mark  the  time.  Aside  from  Westminster  Abbey,  which, 
although  the  work  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  was  really  Norman,  a 
fortress  or  two,  like  Coningsborough  in  Yorkshire,  and  a  few  churches, 
like  that  at  Bradford-on-Avon,  the  Saxons  erected  little  of  note. 

On  the  continent,  stone  had  already  come  into  general  use  for 
churches  and  fortresses.  William  was  no  sooner  firmly  established 
on  his  throne  than  he  began  to  employ  it  for  similar  purposes  in 
England. 

The  characteristic  of  the  Norman  style  of  architecture  was  its 
massive  grandeur.  The  churches  were  built  in  the  form  of  a  cross, 
with  a  square,  central  tower,  the  main  entrance  being  at  the  west. 
The  interior  was  divided  into  a  nave,  or  central  portion,  with  an 
aisle  on  each  side  for  the  passage  of  religious  processions.  The 
windows  were  narrow,  and  rounded  at  the  top.  The  roof  rested 
on  round  arches  supported  by  heavy  columns.  The  cathedrals  of 
Peterborough,  Ely,  Durham,  Norwich,  the  church  of  St.  Bartholo¬ 
mew,  London,  and  St.  John’s  Chapel  in  the  Tower  of  London  are 
fine  examples  of  Norman  work. 

The  castles  consisted  of  a  square  keep,  or  citadel,  with  walls  of 
immense  thickness,  having  a  few  slit-like  windows  in  the  lower  story 
and  somewhat  larger  ones  above.  In  these  everything  was  made 
subordinate  to  strength  and  security.  They  were  surrounded  by  a 
high  stone  wall  and  deep  ditch,  generally  filled  with  water.  The 
entrance  to  them  was  over  a  drawbridge  through  an  archway  pro¬ 
tected  by  an  iron  grating,  or  portcullis,  which  could  be  raised  and 
lowered  at  pleasure.  The  Tower  of  London,  Rochester  Castle, 
Carisbrook  Keep,  New  Castle  on  the  Tyne,  and  Tintagel  Hold  were 
built  by  William  or  his  Norman  successors. 

The  so-called  Jews’  houses  at  Lincoln  and  St.  Edmundsbury 
are  rare  and  excellent  examples  of  Norman  domestic  architecture. 


84  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1066-1154 


Although  in  many  cases  the  castles  are  in  ruins,  yet  these  ruins  bid 
fair  to  stand  as  long  as  the  Pyramids.  They  were  mostly  the  work 
of  churchmen,  who  were  the  best  architects  of  the  day,  and  knew 
how  to  plan  a  fortress  as  well  as  to  build  a  minster. 

GENERAL  INDUSTRY  AND  COMMERCE 

207.  Trade.  —  No  very  marked  change  took  place  in  respect  to 
agriculture  or  trade  during  the  Norman  period.  The  Jews  who  came 
in  with  the  Conqueror  got  the  control  of  much  of  the  trade,  and  were 
the  only  capitalists  of  the  time. 

They  were  protected  by  the  kings  in  money-lending  at  exorbitant 
rates  of  interest.  In  turn,  the  kings  extorted  immense  sums  from 
them. 

The  guilds  (§  142),  or  associations  for  mutual  protection  among 
merchants,  now  became  prominent,  and  came  eventually  to  have 
great  political  influence. 

MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND  CUSTOMS 

208.  Dress.  —  The  Normans  were  more  temperate  and  refined  in 
their  mode  of  living  than  the  Saxons.  In  dress  they  made  great 
display.  In  Henry  I’s  reign  it  became  the  custom  for  the  nobility 
to  wear  their  hair  very  long,  so  that  their  curls  resembled  those  of 
women.  The  clergy  thundered  against  this  effeminate  fashion,  but 
with  no  effect.  At  last,  a  priest  preaching  before  the  King  on 
Easter  Sunday,  ended  his  sermon  by  taking  out  a  pair  of  shears  and 
cropping  the  entire  congregation,  King  and  all. 

By  the  regulation  called  the  curfew,1  a  bell  rang  at  sunset  in 
summer  and  at  eight  in  winter,  which  was  the  government  signal  for 
putting  out  lights  and  covering  up  fires.  This  law,  which  was  espe¬ 
cially  hated  by  the  English,  as  a  Norman  innovation  and  act  of 
tyranny,  was  a  necessary  precaution  against  fire,  at  a  time  when 
London  and  other  cities  were  masses  of  wooden  hovels. 

Surnames  came  in  with  the  Normans.  Previous  to  the  Conquest, 
Englishmen  had  but  one  name  ;  and  when,  for  convenience,  another 
was  needed,  they  were  called  by  their  occupation  or  from  some  per¬ 
sonal  peculiarity,  as  Edward  the  Carpenter,  Harold  the  Dauntless. 
Among  the  Normans  the  lack  of  a  second,  or  family,  name  had  come 

1  Curfew:  (French)  couvrefeu ,  cover-fire. 


o66-uS4]  THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 


85 


to  be  looked  upon  as  a  sign  of  low  birth,  and  the  daughter  of  a  great 
lord  (Fitz-Haman)  refused  to  marry  a  nobleman  who  had  but  one, 
saying,  “  My  father  and  my  grandfather  had  each  two  names,  and  it 
were  a  great  shame  to  me  to  take  a  husband  who  has  less.” 

The  principal  amusements  were  hunting  and  hawking  (catching 
small  game  with  trained  hawks). 

The  Church  introduced  theatrical  plays,  written  and  acted  by  the 
monks.  These  represented  scenes  in  Scripture  history,  and,  later, 
the  career  of  the  Vices  and  the  Virtues  were  personified. 

Tournaments,  or  mock  combats  between  knights,  were  not  encour¬ 
aged  by  William  I  or  his  immediate  successors,  but  became  common 
in  the  period  following  the  Norman  kings. 


86 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1154-1189 


SECTION  VI 


“  Man  bears  within  him  certain  ideas  of  order,  of  justice,  of  reason, 
with  a  constant  desire  to  bring  them  into  play  .  .  .  ;  for  this  he  labors 
unceasingly.”  —  Guizot,  History  of  Civilization. 


THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS,  11 54-1 399 


THE  BARONS  versus  THE  CROWN 


Consolidation  of  Norman  and  Saxon  Interests  —  Rise  of 
the  New  English  Nation 


Henry  II,  1154-11S9. 
Richard  I,  1189-1199. 
John,  1199-1216. 

Henry  III,  1216-1272. 


Edward  I,  1272-1307.1 
Edward  II,  1307-1327. 
Edward  III,  1327-1377. 
Richard  II,  1377-1399. 


209.  Accession  and  Dominions  of  Henry  II.  —  Henry  was  just 
of  age  when  the  death  of  Stephen  called  him  to  the  throne. 

From  his  father,  Count  Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  came  the  title  of 
Angevin.  The  name  Plantagenet,  by  which  the  family  came  to 
be  known  later,  was  derived  from  the  count’s  habit  of  wearing  a 
sprig  of  the  golden-blossomed  broom-plant,  or  Plante-genet,  as 
the  French  called  it,  in  his  helmet. 

Henry  received  from  his  father  the  dukedoms  of  Anjou  and 
Maine,  from  his  mother  Normandy  and  the  dependent  province 
of  Brittany,  while  through  his  marriage  with  Eleanor,  the  divorced 
Queen  of  France,  he  acquired  the  great  southern  dukedom  of 
Aquitaine. 

Thus  on  his  accession  he  became  ruler  over  England  and  more 
than  half  of  France,  his  realms  extending  from  the  borders  of 
Scotland  to  the  base  of  the  Pyrenees.2 

1  Not  crowned  until  1274.  2  See  Maps  Nos.  8  and  10,  facing  pages  88  and  130. 


1154-1189]  THE  angevins,  or  plantagenets 


87 


To  these  extensive  possessions  Henry  added  the  eastern  half 
of  Ireland.1  The  country  was  but  partially  conquered  and  never 
justly  ruled.  The  English  power  there  has  remained  ever  since  like 
a  spear-point  embedded  in  a  living  body,  inflaming  all  around  it.2 

210.  Henry’s  Charter  and  Reforms. — On  his  mother’s  side 
Henry  was  a  descendant  of  Alfred  the  Great  (§90)  ;  for  this 
reason  he  was  hailed  with  enthusiasm  by  the  native  English.  He 
at  once  began  a  system  of  reforms  worthy  of  his  illustrious 
ancestor.  His  first  act  was  to  issue  a  charter  confirming  the 
promises  of  good  government  made  by  his  grandfather,  Henry  I 
(§185).  His  next  was  to  begin  levelling  to  the  ground  the 
castles  illegally  built  in  Stephen’s  reign,  which  had  caused  such 
widespread  misery  to  the  country  3  (§  191).  He  continued  the 
work  of  demolition  until  it  is  said  he  had  destroyed  no  less  than 
eleven  hundred  of  these  strongholds  of  oppression. 

Having  accomplished  this  work,  the  King  turned  his  attention 
to  the  coinage.  During  the  civil  war  the  barons  had  issued 
money  debased  in  quality  and  deficient  in  weight.  Henry  abol¬ 
ished  this  currency  and  issued  in  its  place  silver  pieces  of  full 
weight  and  value. 

1  Ireland:  the  population  of  Ireland  at  this  time  consisted  mainly  of  descendants 
of  the  Celtic  and  other  prehistoric  races  which  inhabited  Britain  at  the  period  of 
the  Roman  invasion.  When  the  Saxons  conquered  Britain,  many  of  the  natives, 
who  were  of  the  same  stock  and  spoke  essentially  the  same  language  as  the  Irish, 
fled  to  that  country.  Later,  the  Danes  formed  settlements  on  the  coast,  especially 
in  the  vicinity  of  Dublin. 

The  conquest  of  England  by  the  Normans  was  practically  a  victory  gained  by  one 
branch  of  a  German  race  over  another  (Saxons  and  Normans  having  originally 
sprung  from  the  same  stock),  and  the  two  soon  mingled ;  but  the  partial  conquest  of 
Ireland  by  the  Normans  was  a  radically  different  thing.  They  and  the  Irish  had 
really  nothing  in  common.  The  latter  refused  to  accept  the  feudal  system,  and  con- 
•  tinued  to  split  up  into  savage  tribes  or  clans  under  the  rule  of  petty  chiefs  always  at 
war  with  each  other. 

Thus  for  centuries  after  England  had  established  a  settled  government  Ireland 
remained,  partly  through  the  battles  of  the  clans,  and  partly  through  the  aggressions 
of  a  hostile  race,  in  a  state  of  anarchic  confusion  which  prevented  all  true  national 
growth. 

2  Lecky’s  England. 

8  Under  William  the  Conqueror  and  his  immediate  successors  no  one  was  allowed 
to  erect  a  castle  without  a  royal  license.  During  Stephen’s  time  the  great  barons 
constantly  violated  this  salutary  regulation. 


88  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1154-1189 


21 1.  War  with  France  ;  Scutage  (1160).  —  Having  completed 
these  reforms,  the  King  turned  his  attention  to  his  continental 
possessions.  Through  his  wife,  Henry  claimed  the  county  of  Tou¬ 
louse  in  Southern  France.  To  enforce  this  claim  he  declared  war. 

Henry’s  barons,  however,  refused  to  furnish  troops  to  fight 
outside  of  England.  The  King  wisely  compromised  the  matter 
by  offering  to  accept  from  each  knight  a  sum  of  money  in  lieu 
of  service,  called  scutage,  or  shield-money.1  The  proposal  was 
agreed  to  (1160),  and  means  were  thus  furnished  to  hire 
soldiers  for  foreign  wars. 

Later  in  his  reign  Henry  supplemented  this  tax  by  the  passage 
of  a  law2  which  revived  the  national  militia  (§§  132,  200)  and 
placed  it  at  his  command  for  home  service.  By  these  two  meas¬ 
ures  the  King  made  himself  practically  independent  of  the  barons, 
and  thus  gained  a  greater  degree  of  power  than  any  previous 
ruler  had  possessed. 

212.  Thomas  Becket.3  —  There  was,  however,  one  man  in 
Henry’s  kingdom  —  his  chancellor,  Thomas  Becket  — who  was 
always  ready  to  serve  him.  At  his  own  expense  he  now  equipped 
seven  hundred  knights,  and,  crossing  the  Channel,  fought  valiantly 
for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  in  Toulouse.4 

Becket  was  the  son  of  Gilbert  Becket,  a  Norman.  Accordin. 
to  tradition  Gilbert  went  out  to  the  Holy  Land  as  a  Crusader. 
There,  it  was  said,  he  was  captured,  but  he  in  turn  succeeded  in 
captivating  the  heart  of  an  Eastern  princess.  She  helped  him 
to  escape  to  his  native  land^  and  then  followed.  The  princess 
knew  but  two  words  of  English,  —  “  Gilbert  ”  and  “  London.” 

1  Scutage  :  (skue'  tage)  from  the  Latin  scutum ,  a  shield  ;  the  understanding  being 
that  he  who  would  not  take  his  shield  and  do  battle  for  the  king  should  pa_  • 
enough  to  hire  one  who  would. 

The  scutage  was  assessed  at  two  marks.  Later,  the  assessment  varied.  Th'> 
mark  was  two-thirds  of  a  pound  of  silver  by  weight,  or  thirteen  shillings  and  four 
pence  ($3.20).  Reckoned  in  modern  money,  the  tax  was  probably  at  least  twenty 
times  two  marks,  or  about  ?i  28.  The  only  coin  in  use  in  England  up  to  Edward  I’s 
reign  (1272)  was  the  silver  penny,  of  which  twelve  made  a  shilling. 

1  The  Assize  or  Law  of  Arms. 

3  Also  spelled  A  Becket  and  Beket. 

4  See  Map  No.  8,  facing  page  88  (Toulouse  in  the  south  of  France). 


1154-1189]  THE  angevins,  or  plantagenets 


89 


By  constantly  repeating  these,  as  she  wandered  from  city  to 
city,  she  at  length  found  both,  and  the  long  search  for  her  lover 
ended  in  a  happy  marriage. 

213.  Becket  made  Archbishop  (1162).  — Shortly  after  Becket’s 
return  from  the  continent  Henry  resolved  to  appoint  him  Arch¬ 
bishop  of  Canterbury.  Becket  knew  that  the  King  purposed 
beginning  certain  church  reforms  with  which  he  was  not  in 
sympathy,  and  declined  the  office.  But  Henry  would  take  no 
denial. 

At  last,  wearied  with  his  importunity,  Becket  consented,  but 
warned  the  King  that  he  should  uphold  the  rights  of  the  clergy. 
He  now  became  the  head  of  the  Church,  and  was  the  first  man  of 
English  birth  called  to  that  exalted  position  since  the  Norman 
Conquest. 

With  his  assumption  of  the  sacred  office,  Becket  seemed  to 
wholly  change  his  character.  He  had  been  a  man  of  the  world, 
fond  of  pomp  and  pleasure.  He  now  gave  up  all  luxury  and 
show.  He  put  on  sackcloth,  lived  on  bread  and  water,  and  spent 
his  nights  in  prayer,  tearing  his  flesh  with  a  scourge. 

214.  The  First  Quarrel.  — The  new  archbishop’s  presentiment 
of  evil  soon  proved  true.  Becket  had  hardly  taken  his  seat  when 
a  quarrel  broke  out  between  him  and  the  King.  In  his  need  for 
money  Henry  had  levied  a  tax  on  all  lands,  whether  belonging  to 
the  barons  or  churchmen. 

Becket  opposed  this  tax.1  He  was  willing,  he  said,  that  the 
clergy  should  contribute,  but  not  that  they  should  be  assessed. 

The  King  declared  with  an  oath  that  all  should  pay  alike  ;  the 
archbishop  vowed  with  equal  determination  that  not  a  single 
penny  should  be  collected  from  the  Church.  What  the  result  was 
we  do  not  know,  but  from  that  time  the  King  and  Becket  never 
met  again  as  friends. 

215.  The  Second  Quarrel.  —  Shortly  afterward,  a  much  more 
serious  quarrel  broke  out  between  the  two.  Under  the  law  of 
William  the  Conqueror,  the  Church  had  the  right  to  try  in  its 
own  courts  all  offences  committed  by  monks  and  priests  (§  201). 

1  See  §  200,  page  79,  note  2,  on  Clergy. 


90  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1154-11S9 


This  privilege  had  led  to  great  abuses.  Men  whose  only  claim 
to  sanctity  was  that  they  wore  a  black  gown  or  had  a  shaven  head 
claimed  the  right  of  being  judged  by  the  ecclesiastical  tribunal. 
The  heaviest  sentence  the  Church  could  give  was  imprisonment  in 
a  monastery,  with  degradation  from  the  clerical  office.  Generally, 
however,  offenders  got  off  with  flogging  and  fasting. 

On  this  account  many  criminals  who  deserved  to  be  hanged 
escaped  with  a  slight  penalty.  Such  a  case  now  occurred.  A 
priest  named  Brois  had  committed  an  unprovoked  murder.  Henry 
commanded  him  to  be  brought  before  the  King’s  court ;  Becket 
interfered,  and  ordered  the  case  to  be  tried  by  the  bishop  of  the 
diocese.  That  functionary  sentenced  the  murderer  to  lose  his 
place  for  two  years. 

216.  The  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  (1164).  — The  King,  now 
thoroughly  aroused,  determined  that  such  flagrant  disregard  of 
justice  should  no  longer  go  on.  He  called  a  council  of  his  chief 
men  at  Clarendon,1  and  laid  the  case  before  them. 

He  demanded  that  in  future  the  state  or  civil  courts  should  be 
supreme,  and  that  in  every  instance  their  judges  should  decide 
whether  a  criminal  should  be  tried  by  the  common  law  of  the 
land  or  handed  over  to  the  church  courts. 

He  required,  furthermore,  that  the  clergy  should  be  held  strictly 
responsible  to  the  Crown,  so  that  in  case  of  dispute  the  final 
appeal  should  be  neither  to  the  archbishop  nor  to  the  Pope,  but 
to  himself.  After  protracted  debate  the  council  passed  these 
measures,  which,  under  the  name  of  the  Constitutions  of  Claren¬ 
don,  now  became  law.  (See  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix, 
page  vi,  §  8,  and  page  xxxii.) 

Becket,  though  bitterly  opposed  to  this  enactment,  finally 
assented  and  swore  to  obey  it.  Afterward,  feeling  that  he 
had  conceded  too  much,  he  retracted  his  oath  and  refused  to 
be  bound  by  the  Constitutions.  The  other  church  dignitaries 
became  alarmed  at  the  prospect,  and  left  Becket  to  settle  with 
the  King  as  best  he  might.  Henceforth  it  was  a  battle  between 
one  man  and  the  whole  power  of  the  Government. 

1  Clarendon  Park,  Wiltshire,  near  Salisbury. 


1154-1189]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS  9 1 

217.  The  King  enforces  the  Law  ;  Becket  leaves  the  Country.  — 

Henry  at  once  proceeded  to  put  the  Constitutions  into  execution 
without  fear  or  favor. 

“Then  was  seen  the  mournful  spectacle,”  says  a  champion  of 
the  Church  of  that  day,  “  of  priests  and  deacons  who  had  com¬ 
mitted  murder,  manslaughter,  robbery,  theft,  and  other  crimes, 
carried  in  carts  before  the  commissioners  and  punished  as  though 
they  were  ordinary  men.”  1 

Not  satisfied  with  these  summary  procedures,  the  King,  who 
seems  now  to  have  resolved  to  ruin  Becket  or  to  drive  him  from 
the  kingdom,  summoned  the  archbishop  before  a  royal  council  at 
Northampton.  The  charges  brought  against  him  appear  to  have 
had  little,  if  any,  foundation. 

Becket,  though  he  answered  the  summons,  refused  to  acknowl¬ 
edge  the  jurisdiction  of  the  council,  and  appealed  to  the  Pope. 
“Traitor  !  ”  cried  a  courtier,  as  he  picked  up  a  bunch  of  muddy 
rushes  from  the  floor  and  flung  them  at  the  archbishop’s  head. 

Becket  turned  and,  looking  him  sternly  in  the  face,  said,  “  Were 
I  not  a  churchman,  I  would  make  you  repent  that  word.” 

Realizing,  however,  that  he  was  now  in  serious  danger,  he  soon 
after  left  Northampton  and  fled  to  France. 

218.  Banishment  versus  Excommunication  (1164).  —  Henry, 
finding  Becket  beyond  his  reach,  next  proceeded  to  banish  his 
kinsmen  and  friends,  without  regard  to  age  or  sex,  to  the  number 
of  nearly  four  hundred.  The  miserable  exiles,  many  of  whom 
were  nearly  destitute,  were  forced  to  leave  the  country  in 
midwinter,  and  excited  the  pity  of  all  who  saw  them. 

Becket  indignantly  retaliated.  He  hurled  at  the  King’s  coun¬ 
sellors  the  awful  sentence  of  excommunication  or  expulsion  from 
the  Church.  It  declared  the  King  accursed  of  God  and  man, 
deprived  of  help  in  this  world,  and  shut  out  from  hope  in  the 
world  to  come.  In  this  manner  the  quarrel  went  on  with  ever- 
increasing  bitterness  for  the  space  of  six  years. 

219.  Prince  Henry  crowned  ;  Reconciliation  (1170).  —  Henry, 
who  had  long  wished  to  associate  his  son,  Prince  Henry,  with  him 

1  William  of  Newburgh’s  Chronicle. 


92  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1154-1189 


in  the  government,  had  him  crowned  at  Westminster  by  the  Arch¬ 
bishop  of  York,  the  bishops  of  London  and  Salisbury  taking  part. 

By  custom,  if  not  indeed  by  law,  Becket  alone,  as  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  had  the  right  to  perform  this  ceremony. 

When  Becket  heard  of  the  coronation,  he  declared  it  an  outrage 
both  against  Christianity  and  the  Church.  So  great  an  outcry 
now  arose  that  Henry  believed  it  expedient  to  recall  the  absent 
archbishop,  especially  as  the  King  of  France  was  urging  the  Pope 
to  take  up  the  matter.  Henry  accordingly  went  over  to  the 
continent,  met  Becket,  and  persuaded  him  to  return. 

220.  Renewal  of  the  Quarrel ;  Murder  of  Becket  (1170).  —  But 
the  reconciliation  was  on  the  surface  only ;  underneath,  the  old 
hatred  smouldered,  ready  to  burst  forth  into  flame. 

As  soon  as  he  reached  England,  Becket  invoked  the  thunders 
of  the  Church  against  those  who  had  officiated  at  the  coronation 
of  Prince  Henry.  He  excommunicated  the  Archbishop  of  York 
with  his  assistant  bishops. 

The  King  took  their  part,  and  in  an  unguarded  moment 
exclaimed,  in  an  outburst  of  passion,  “  Will  none  of  the  cowards 
who  eat  my  bread  rid  me  of  that  turbulent  priest?”  In  answer 
to  his  angry  cry  for  relief,  four  knights  set  out  without  Henry’s 
knowledge  for  Canterbury,  and  brutally  murdered  the  archbishop 
within  the  walls  of  his  own  cathedral. 

221.  Results  of  the  Murder.  — The  crime  sent  a  thrill  of  horror 
throughout  the  realm.  The  Pope  proclaimed  Becket  a  saint. 
The  English  people  felt  that  in  a  certain  sense  Becket  had  risen 
from  their  ranks  and  was  of  their  blood  (§  212).  They  looked 
upon  the  dead  ecclesiastic  as  a  martyr  who  had  died  in  the  defence 
of  the  Church,  and  of  all  those  around  whom  the  Church  cast  its 
protecting  power. 

The  cathedral  of  Canterbury  was  hung  in  mourning ;  Becket’s 
shrine  became  the  most  famous  in  England.  The  stone  pavement, 
and  the  steps  leading  to  it,  still  show  bv  their  deep-worn  hollows 
where  thousands  of  pilgrims  coming  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
and  from  the  continent  even,  used  to  creep  on  their  knees  to  the 
saint’s  tomb  to  pray  for  his  intercession. 


THE  TOWER  OF  LONDON 


1154-1189]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


93 


Henry  himself  was  so  far  vanquished  by  the  reaction  in  Becket’s 
favor,  that  he  gave  up  any  further  attempt  to  formally  enforce 
•  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  (§  216),  by  which  he  had 
hoped  to  establish  a  uniform  system  of  administration  of  justice. 
But  the  attempt,  though  baffled,  was  not  wholly  lost ;  like  seed 
buried  in  the  soil,  it  sprang  up  and  bore  good  fmit  in  later 
generations. 

222.  The  King  makes  his  Will;  Civil  War. — Some  years 
after  the  murder,  the  King  bequeathed  England  and  Normandy 
to  Prince  Henry.1  He  at  the  same  time  provided  for  his  sons 
Geoffrey  and  Richard.  To  John,  the  youngest  of  the  brothers, 
he  gave  no  territory,  but  requested  Henry  to  grant  him  several 
castles,  which  the  latter  refused  to  do. 

“  It  is  our  fate,”  said  one  of  the  sons,  “  that  none  should  love 
the  rest ;  that  is  the  only  inheritance  which  will  never  be  taken 
from  us.” 

It  may  be  that  that  legacy  of  hatred  was  the  result  of  Henry’s 
unwise  marriage  with  Eleanor,  an  able  but  perverse  woman,  or  it 
may  have  sprung  from  her  jealousy  of  “  Fair  Rosamond  ”  and 
other  favorites  of  the  King.2 

Eventually  this  feeling  burst  out  into  civil  war.  Brother  fought 
against  brother,  and  Eleanor,  conspiring  with  the  King  of  France, 
turned  against  her  husband. 

223.  The  King’s  Penance  (1173).  —  The  revolt  against  Henry’s 
power  began  in  Normandy  (1173).  While  he  was  engaged 
in  quelling  it,  he  received  intelligence  that  Earl  Bigod  of 

1  After  his  coronation  Prince  Henry  had  the  title  of  Henry  III;  but  as  he  died 
before  his  father,  he  never  properly  became  king  in  his  own  right. 

2  “  Fair  Rosamond”  [ftosa  mundi,  the  Rose  of  the  world  (as  then  interpreted)] 
was  the  daughter  of  Lord  Clifford.  According  to  tradition  the  King  formed  an 
attachment  for  this  lady  before  his  unfortunate  marriage  with  Eleanor,  and  con¬ 
structed  a  place  of  concealment  for  her  in  a  forest  in  Woodstock,  near  Oxford.  Some 
accounts  report  the  Queen  as  discovering  her  rival  and  putting  her  to  death.  She 
was  buried  in  the  nunnery  of  Godstow  near  by.  When  Henry’s  son  John  became 
King,  he  raised  a  monument  to  her  memory  with  the  inscription  in  Latin:  — 

“This  tomb  doth  here  enclose 
The  world’s  most  beauteous  Rose  — 

Rose  passing  sweet  erewhile, 

Now  naught  but  odor  vile.” 


94  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1154-1189 


Norfolk 1  and  the  bishop  of  Durham,  both  of  whom  hated  the  King’s 
reforms,  since  they  curtailed  their  authority,  had  risen  against  him. 

Believing  that  this  new  trouble  was  a  judgment  of  Heaven  for 
Becket’s  murder,  Henry  resolved  to  do  penance  at  his  tomb. 
Leaving  the  continent  with  two  prisoners  in  his  charge,  —  one  his 
son  Henry’s  queen,  the  other  his  own,  —  he  travelled  with  all 
speed  to  Canterbury.  There,  kneeling  abjectly  before  the  grave 
of  his  former  chancellor  and  friend,  the  King  submitted  to  be 
beaten  with  rods  by  the  priests,  in  expiation  of  his  sin. 

224.  End  of  the  Rebellion  and  of  the  Struggle  of  the  Barons 
against  the  Crown.  —  Henry  then  moved  against  the  rebels  in  the 
north.  Convinced  of  the  hopelessness  of  holding  out  against  his  ^ 
forces,  they  submitted.  With  their  submission  the  struggle  of  the 
barons  against  the  Crown  came  to  an  end.  It  had  lasted  just  one 
hundred  years  (1074-1174). 

It  settled  the  question,  once  for  all,  that  England  was  not  like 
the  rest  of  Europe,  to  be  managed  in  the  interest  of  a  body  of 
great  baronial  landholders  always  at  war  with  each  other ;  but 
was  henceforth  to  be  governed  by  one  central  power,  restrained 
but  not  overridden  by  that  of  the  nobles  and  the  Church. 

225.  The  King  again  begins  his  Reforms  (1176).  —  As  soon  as  | 
order  was  restored,  Henry  once  more  set  about  completing  his 
legal  and  judicial  reforms  (§  216).  His  great  object  was  to  . 
secure  a  uniform  system  of  administering  justice  which  should 
be  effective  and  impartial. 

Henry  I  had  undertaken  to  divide  the  kingdom  into  districts 
or  circuits,  which  were  assigned  to  a  certain  number  of  judges,  I 
who  travelled  through  them  at  stated  times  collecting  the  royal 
revenue  and  administering  the  law  (§  187).  Henry  II  revised 
and  perfected  this  plan.2 

1  Hugh  Bigod :  the  Bigods  were  among  the  most  prominent  and  also  the  most 
turbulent  of  the  Norman  barons.  On  the  derivation  of  the  name,  see  Webster’s  i 
Dictionary,  “  Bigot.” 

2  Grand  Assize  and  Assize  of  Clarendon  (not  to  be  confounded  with  the  Consti-  * 
tutions  of  Clarendon).  The  Assize  of  Clarendon  was  later  expanded  and  made  per¬ 
manent  under  the  name  of  the  Assize  of  Northampton.  See  Constitutional  Summary 

in  Appendix,  page  vi,  §  7. 


1154-1189]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


95 


Not  only  had  the  barons  set  up  private  courts  on  their  estates, 
but  they  had  in  many  cases  got  the  entire  control  of  the  town 
and  other  local  courts,  and  dealt  out  such  justice  or  injustice  as 
they  pleased.  The  King’s  judges  now  presided  over  these  tribu¬ 
nals,  thus  bringing  the  common  law  of  the  realm  to  every  man’s 
door. 

226.  Grand  Juries.  — The  Norman  method  of  settling  disputes 
was  by  trial  of  battle,  in  which  the  contestants  or  their  champions 
fought  the  matter  out  either  with  swords  or  cudgels  (§  198). 
There  were  those  who  objected  to  this  club-law.  To  them  the 
King  offered  the  privilege  of  leaving  the  case  to  the  decision  of 
twelve  knights,  chosen  from  the  neighborhood,  who  were  sup¬ 
posed  to  know  the  facts.  (See  Constitutional  Summary  in 
Appendix,  page  vi,  §  8.) 

In  like  manner,  when  the  judges  passed  through  a  circuit,  a 
grand  jury  of  not  less  than  sixteen  was  to  report  to  them  the 
criminals  of  each  district.  These  the  judges  forthwith  sent  to 
the  Church  to  be  examined  by  the  ordeal  (§  127).  If  con¬ 
victed,  they  were  punished  ;  if  not,  the  judges  ordered  them  as 
suspicious  characters  to  leave  the  country  within  eight  days. 
In  that  way  the  rascals  of  that  generation  were  summarily 
disposed  of. 

227.  Origin  of  the  Modern  Trial  by  Jury  (1350).  —  In  the 
reign  of  Henry’s  son  John,  the  Church  abolished  the  ordeal 
throughout  Christendom.  It  then  became  the  custom  in  Eng¬ 
land  to  choose  a  petty  jury,  acquainted  with  the  facts,  who  con¬ 
firmed  or  denied  the  accusations  brought  by  the  grand  jury. 
When  this  petty  jury  could  not  agree,  the  decision  of  a  majority 
was  sometimes  accepted. 

Owing  to  the  difficulty  of  securing  justice  in  this  way,  it  gradu¬ 
ally  became  the  custom  to  summon  witnesses,  who  gave  their 
testimony  before  the  petty  jury  in  order  thereby  to  obtain  a 
unanimous  verdict. 

The  first  mention  of  this  change  occurs  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  III  (1350)  ;  and  from  that  time,  perhaps,  may  be  dated 
the  true  beginning  of  our  modern  method,  by  which  the  jury 


g6  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1154-1189 


bring  in  a  verdict,  not  from  what  they  personally  know,  but 
from  evidence  sworn  .to  by  those  who  do. 

Henry  II  may  rightfully  be  regarded  as  the  true  founder  of 
the  system  which  England,  and  England  alone,  fully  matured, 
and  which  has  since  been  adopted  by  every  civilized  country  of 
the  globe.  (See  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix,  page  vi, 
§  8.) 

228.  The  King’s  Last  Days.  —  Henry’s  last  days  were  full  of 
bitterness.  Ever  since  his  memorable  return  from  the  continent 
(§  223),  he  had  been  obliged  to  hold  the  Queen  a  prisoner  lest 
she  should  undermine  his  power.  His  sons  were  discontented 
and  rebellious.  Toward  the  close  of  his  reign  they  again  plotted 
against  him  with  King  Philip  of  France.  War  was  then  declared 
against  that  country. 

When  peace  was  made,  Henry,  who  was  lying  ill,  asked  to  see 
a  list  of  those  who  had  conspired  against  him.  At  the  head  of 
it  stood  the  name  of  his  youngest  son,  John,  whom  he  trusted. 
At  the  sight  of  it  the  old  man  turned  his  face  to  the  wall,  saying, 
“I  have  nothing  left  to  care  for;  let  all  things  go  their  way.” 
Two  days  afterward  he  died  of  a  broken  heart. 

229.  Summary.  —  Henry  II  left  his  work  only  half  done; 
yet  that  half  was  permanent,  and  its  beneficent  mark  may  be  seen 
on  the  English  law  and  the  English  constitution  at  the  present 
time. 

When  he  ascended  the  throne  he  found  a  people  who  had  long 
been  suffering  the  miseries  of  a  protracted  civil  war.  He  estab¬ 
lished  a  stable  government.  He  redressed  the  wrongs  of  his 
people.  He  punished  the  mutinous  barons. 

He  compelled  the  Church,  at  least  for  a  time,  to  acknowledge 
the  supremacy  of  the  State.  He  reformed  the  administration  of 
law ;  established  methods  of  judicial  inquiry  which  gradually 
developed  into  trial  by  jury ;  and  made  all  men  feel  that  a  king 
sat  on  the  throne  who  believed  in  justice  and  was  able  to  make 
justice  respected. 


i iSg-i 199] 


THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


97 


X 


RICHARD  I  (Coeur  de  Lion) 1  —  1189-1199- 


230.  Accession  and  Character  of  Richard.  —  Henry  II  was 
succeeded  by  his  second  son,  Richard,  his  first  having  died  during 
the  civil  war  (1183)  in  which  he  and  his  brother  Geoffrey  had 
fought  against  Prince  Richard  and  their  father  (§  222).  Richard 
was  born  at  Oxford,  but  he  spent  his  youth  in  France. 

The  only  English  sentence  that  he  was  ever  known  to  speak 
was  when  he  was  in  a  raging  passion.  He  then  vented  his  wrath 
against  an  impertinent  Frenchman,  in  some  broken  but  decidedly 
strong  expressions  of  his  native  tongue. 

Richard’s  bravery  in  battle  and  his  daring  exploits  gained  for 
him  the  flattering  surname  of  Coeur  de  Lion.  He  had  a  right  to 
it,  for  with  all  his  faults  he  certainly  possessed  the  heart  of  a  lion. 
He  might,  however,  have  been  called,  with  equal  truth,  Richard 
the  Absentee,  since  out  of  a  nominal  reign  of  ten  years  he  spent 
but  a  few  months  in  England,  the  remaining  time  being  consumed 
in  wars  abroad. 

231.  Condition  of  Society.  —  Perhaps  no  better  general  pic¬ 
ture  of  society  in  England  during  this  period  can  be  found  than 
that  presented  by  Sir  Walter  Scott’s  novel,  “  Ivanhoe.”  There 
every  class  appears.  One  sees  the  Saxon  serf  and  swineherd, 
wearing  the  brazen  collar  of  his  master  Cedric ;  the  pilgrim 
wandering  from  shrine  to  shrine,  with  the  palm  branch  in  his 
cap  to  show  that  he  has  visited  the  Holy  Land  ;  the  outlaw, 
Robin  Hood,  lying  in  wait  to  strip  rich  churchmen  and  other 
travellers  who  were  on  their  way  through  Sherwood  Forest.  He 
sees,  too,  the  Norman  baron  in  his  castle  torturing  the  aged 
Jew  to  extort  his  hidden  gold ;  and  the  steel-clad  knights, 
with  Ivanhoe  at  their  head,  splintering  lances  in  the  tourna¬ 


ment,  presided  over  by  Richard’s  brother,  the  traitorous  Prince 


John. 


1  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion  (Keur  de  Le'on),  Richard  the  Lion-hearted.  An  old 
chronicler  says  the  King  got  the  name  from. his  adventure  with  a  lion.  The  beast 
attacked  him,  and  as  the  King  had  no  weapons,  he  thrust  his  hand  down  his  throat 
and  “  tore  out  his  heart  ”  1 


98  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1189-1199 


232.  Richard’s  Coronation.  —  Richard  was  on  the  continent 
at  the  time  of  his  father’s  death.  His  first  act  was  to  liberate 
his  mother  from  her  long  imprisonment  at  Winchester  (§  228)  ; 
his  next,  to  place  her  at  the  head  of  the  English  government 
until  his  arrival  from  Normandy.  Unlike  Henry  II,  Richard  did 
not  issue  a  charter,  or  pledge  of  good  government  (§  210).  He, 
however,  took  the  usual  coronation  oath  to  defend  the  Church, 
maintain  justice,  make  salutary  laws,  and  abolish  evil  customs ; 
such  an  oath  might  well  be  considered  a  charter  in  itself. 

233.  The  Crusade  (1190) ;  Richard’s  Devices  for  raising  Money. 
—  Immediately  after  his  coronation,  Richard  began  to  make  prep¬ 
arations  to  join  the  King  of  France  and  the  Emperor  of  Germany 
in  the  third  crusade.  To  get  money  for  the  expedition,  the  King 
extorted  loans  from  the  Jews,  who  were  the  creditors  of  half 
England,  and  had  almost  complete  control  of  the  capital  and 
commerce  of  every  country  in  Europe. 

The  English  nobles  who  joined  Richard  also  borrowed  largely 
from  the  same  source  ;  and  then,  suddenly  turning  on  the  hated 
lenders,  they  tried  to  extinguish  the  debt  by  extinguishing  the 
Jews.  A  pretext  against  the  unfortunate  race  was  easily  found. 
Riots  broke  out  in  London,  York,  and  elsewhere,  and  hundreds 
of  Israelites  were  brutally  massacred. 

Richard’s  next  move  to  obtain  funds  was  to  impose  a  heavy 
tax ;  his  next,  to  dispose  of  titles  of  rank  and  offices  in  both 
Church  and  State,  to  all  who  wished  to  buy  them.  Thus,  to  the 
aged  and  covetous  bishop  of  Durham  he  sold  the  earldom  of 
Northumberland  for  life,  saying,  as  he  concluded  the  bargain, 
“  Out  of  an  old  bishop  I  have  made  a  new  earl.” 

He  sold,  also,  the  office  of  chief  justice  to  the  same  prelate  for 
an  additional  thousand  marks  (§  211,  note  1),  while  the  King  of 
Scotland  purchased  freedom  from  subjection  to  the  English  King 
for  ten  thousand  marks. 

Last  of  all,  Richard  sold  charters  to  towns.  One  of  his 
courtiers  remonstrated  with  him  for  his  greed  for  gain.  He 
replied  that  he  would  sell  London  itself  if  he  could  but  find  a 
purchaser. 


1189-1199]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANT AGENETS 


99 


234.  The  Rise  of  the  Free  Towns. — Of  all  these  devices  for 
raising  money,  the  last  had  the  most  important  results.  From 
the  time  of  the  Norman  Conquest  the  large  towns  of  England, 
with  few  exceptions,  were  considered  part  of  the  king’s  property  ; 
the  smaller  places  generally  belonged  to  the  great  barons. 

The  citizens  of  these  towns  were  obliged  to  pay  rent  and  taxes 
of  various  kinds  to  the  king  or  lord  who  owned  them.  These 
dues  were  collected  by  an  officer  appointed  by  the  king  or  lord 
(usually  the  sheriff),  who  was  bound  to  obtain  a  certain  sum, 
whatever  more  he  could  get  being  his  own  profit.  For  this  reason 
it  was  for  his  interest  to  exact  from  every  citizen  the  uttermost 
penny.  London,  as  we  have  seen,  had  secured  a  considerable 
degree  of  liberty  through  the  charter  granted  to  it  by  William  the 
Conqueror  (§  154).  Every  town  was  now  anxious  to  obtain  a 
similar  pledge. 

The  three  great  objects  aimed  at  by  the  citizens  were  (1)  to 
get  the  right  of  paying  their  taxes  (a  fixed  sum)  directly  to  -the 
king,  (2)  to  elect  their  own  magistrates,  and  (3)  to  administer 
justice  in  their  own  courts  in  accordance  with  laws  made  by  them¬ 
selves.  The  only  way  to  gain  these  privileges  was  to  pay  for 
them. 

Many  of  the  towns  were  rich  ;  and,  when  the  king  or  lord 
needed  money,  they  bargained  with  him  for  the  favors  they 
desired.  When  the  agreement  was  made,  it  was  drawn  up  in 
Latin,  stamped  with  the  king’s  seal,  and  taken  home  in  triumph 
by  the  citizens,  who  locked  it  up  as  the  safeguard  of  their  liberties. 
If  they  could  not  get  all  they  wanted,  they  bought  a  part. 

Thus,  the  people  of  Leicester,  in  the  next  reign,  purchased  from 
the  earl,  their  master,  the  right  to  decide  their  own  disputes. 
For  this  they  paid  a  yearly  tax  of  three  pence  on  every  house 
having  a  gable  on  the  main  street.  These  concessions  may  seem 
small ;  but  they  prepared  the  way  for  greater  ones. 

What  was  still  more  important,  they  educated  the  citizens  of 
that  day  in  a  knowledge  of  self-government.  It  was  the  trades¬ 
men  and  shopkeepers  of  these  towns  who  preserved  free  speech 
and  equal  justice.  Richard  granted  a  large  number  of  such 


IOO  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1189-1199 


charters,  and  thus  unintentionally  made  himself  a  benefactor  to 
the  nation.1 

235.  Failure  of  the  Third  Crusade. — The  object  of  the  third 
crusade  was  to  drive  the  Mohammedans  from  Jerusalem.  In  this 
it  failed.  Richard  got  as  near  Jerusalem  as  the  Mount  of  Olives. 
When  he  had  climbed  to  the  top,  he  was  told  that  he  could  have 
a  full  view  of  the  place  ;  but  he  covered  his  face  with  his  mantle, 
saying,  “  Blessed  Lord,  let  me  not  see  thy  holy  city,  since  I  may 
not  deliver  it  from  the  hands  of  thine  enemies  !  ” 

236.  Richard  taken  Prisoner;  his  Ransom  (1194). — On  his 
way  home  the  King  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  German  Emperor, 
who  held  him  captive.  His  brother  John,  who  had  remained  in 
England,  plotted  with  Philip  of  France  to  keep  Richard  in  prison 
while  he  got  possession  of  the  throne. 

Notwithstanding  his  efforts,  Richard  regained  his  liberty 
(1194), 2  on  condition  of  raising  a  ransom  so  enormous  that  it 
compelled  every  Englishman  to  contribute  a  fourth  of  his  per¬ 
sonal  property,  and  even  forced  the  priests  to  strip  the  churches 
of  their  jewels  and  silver  plate. 

When  the  King  of  France  heard  of  this,  he  wrote  to  John, 
notifying  him  that  his  brother  was  free,  saying,  “  Look  out  for 
yourself;  the  devil  has  broken  loose.”  Richard  pardoned  him; 
and  when  the  King  was  killed  in  France  (1199)  John  gained  and 
disgraced  the  throne  he  coveted. 

237.  Purpose  of  the  Crusades.  —  Up  to  the  time  of  the  cru¬ 
sades,  the  English  wars  on  the  continent  had  been  actuated  either 
by  ambition  for  military  glory  or  desire  for  conquest.  The  cru¬ 
sades,  on  the  contrary,  were  undertaken  from  motives  of  religious 
enthusiasm. 

1  Rise  of  Free  Towns:  by  1216  the  most  advanced  of  the  English  towns  had 
become  to  a  very  considerable  extent  self-governing.  See  Stubbs’  Constitutional 
History  of  England. 

2  It  is  not  certainly  known  how  the  news  of  Richard's  captivity  reached  England. 
One  story  says  that  it  was  carried  by  Blondel,  a  minstrel  who  had  accompanied  the 
King  to  Palestine.  He,  it  is  said,  wandered  through  Germany  in  search  of  his  mas¬ 
ter,  singing  one  of  Richard’s  favorite  songs  at  every  castle  he  came  to.  One  day,  as 
he  was  thus  singing  at  the  foot  of  a  tower,  he  heard  the  well-known  voice  of  the  King 
take  up  the  next  verse  in  reply. 


1189-1199]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


IOI 


Those  who  engaged  in  them  fought  for  an  idea.  They  consid¬ 
ered  themselves  soldiers  of  the  cross.  Moved  by  this  feeling,  “all 
Christian  believers  seemed  ready  to  precipitate  themselves  in  one 
united  body  upon  Asia.”  Thus  the  crusades  were  “  the  first 
European  event.”  1  They  gave  men  something  to  battle  for,  not 
only  outside  their  country,  but  outside  their  own  selfish  interests. 

Richard,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the  first  English  king  who  took 
part  in  them.  Before  that  period  England  had  stood  aloof,  —  “  a 
world  by  itself.”  The  country  was  engaged  in  its  own  affairs  or 
in  its  contests  with  France.  Richard’s  expedition  to  Palestine 
brought  England  into  the  main  current  of  history,  so  that  it  was 
now  moved  by  the  same  feeling  which  animated  the  continent. 

238.  The  Results  of  the  Crusades  :  Educational,  Social,  Polit¬ 
ical. —  In  many  respects  the  civilization  of  the  East  was  far  in 
advance  of  the  West.  One  result  of  the  crusades  was  to  open  the 
eyes  of  Europe  to  this  fact.  When  Richard  and  his  followers  set 
out,  they  looked  upon  the  Mohammedans  as  barbarians ;  before 
they  returned,  many  were  ready  to  acknowledge  that  the  barba¬ 
rians  were  chiefly  among  themselves. 

At  that  time  England  had  few  Latin  and  no  Greek  scholars. 
The  Arabians,  however,  had  long  been  familiar  with  the  classics, 
and  had  translated  them  into  their  own  tongue.  Not  only  did 
England  gain  its  first  knowledge  of  the  philosophy  of  Plato  and 
Aristotle  from  Mohammedan  teachers,  but  it  received  from  them 
also  the  elements  of  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry,  and  astronomy. 

This  new  knowledge  gave  an  impulse  to  education,  and  had 
a  most  important  influence  on  the  growth  of  the  universities  of 
Cambridge  and  Oxford,  though  these  did  not  become  prominent 
until  more  than  a  century  later. 

Had  these  been  the  only  results,  they  would  perhaps  have  been 
worth  the  blood  and  treasure  spent  in  vain  attempts  to  recover 
l  possession  of  the  sepulchre  of  Christ ;  but  these  were  by  no  means 
all.  The  crusades  brought  about  a  social  and  political  revolution. 
They  conferred  benefits  and  removed  evils.  When  they  began, 
the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Europe,  including  England, 

1  Guizot’s  History  of  Civilization. 


102  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1189-1199 


were  chained  to  the  soil.  They  had  neither  freedom,  property, 
nor  knowledge. 

'There  were  in  fact  but  two  classes,  the  churchmen  and  the 
nobles,  who  really  deserved  the  name  of  citizens  and  men.  We 
have  seen  that  the  crusades  compelled  kings  like  Richard  to  grant 
charters  of  freedom  to  towns  (§  234).  The  nobles  conferred  sim¬ 
ilar  privileges  on  those  in  their  power.  Thus  their  great  estates 
were,  in  a  measure,  broken  up,  and  from  this  period,  says  Gibbon, 
the  common  people  began  to  acquire  rights,  and,  what  is  more,  to 
defend  them. 

239.  Summary.  — We  may  say  in  closing  that  the  central  fact 
in  Richard’s  reign  was  his  embarking  in  the  crusades.  From  them, 
directly  or  indirectly,  England  gained  two  important  results  :  first, 
a  greater  degree  of  political  liberty,  especially  in  the  case  of  the 
towns ;  secondly,  a  new  intellectual  and  educational  impulse. 


JOHN  — 1199-1216 


240.  John  Lackland.  —  When  Henry  II  in  dividing  his  realm 
left  his  youngest  son  John  dependent  on  the  generosity  of  his 
brothers,  he  jestingly  gave  him  the  surname  of  “  Lackland  ” 
(§222).  As  John  never  received  any  principality,  the  nickname 
continued  to  cling  to  him  even  after  he  had  become  King  through 
the  death  of  his  brother  Richard. 

241.  The  Quarrels  of  the  King.  — The  reign  of  the  new  King 
was  taken  up  mainly  with  three  momentous  quarrels  :  first,  with 
France ;  next,  with  the  Pope ;  lastly,  with  the  barons.  By  his 
quarrel  with  France  he  lost  Normandy  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
adjoining  provinces,  thus  becoming  in  a  new  sense  John  Lackland. 
Bv  his  quarrel  with  the  Pope  he  was  humbled  to  the  earth.  By 
his  quarrel  with  the  barons  he  was  forced  to  grant  England  the 
Great  Charter. 

242.  Murder  of  Prince  Arthur.  —  Shortly  after  John’s  acces¬ 
sion  the  nobles  of  a  part  of  the  English  possessions  in  France 
expressed  their  desire  that  John’s  nephew,  Arthur,  a  boy  of  twelve, 
should  become  their  ruler.  John  refused  to  grant  their  request. 


U99-I2I6]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


103 


War  ensued,  and  Arthur  fell  into  his  uncle’s  hands,  who  impris¬ 
oned  him  in  the  castle  of  Rouen.  A  number  of  those  who  had 
been  captured  with  the  young  prince  were  starved  to  death  in  the 
dungeons  of  the  same  castle,  and  not  long  after  Arthur  himself 
mysteriously  disappeared.  Shakespeare  represents  John  as  order¬ 
ing  the  keeper  of  the  castle  to  put  out  the  lad’s  eyes,  and  then 
tells  us  that  he  was  killed  in  an  attempt  to  escape.  The  earlier 
belief,  however,  was  that  the  King  murdered  him. 

243.  John’s  Loss  «of  Normandy  (1204). — Philip  of  France  ac¬ 
cused  John  of  the  crime,  and  ordered  him  as  Duke  of  Normandy, 
and  hence  as  a  feudal  dependant  (§  122),  to  appear  at  Paris  for 
trial.1  He  refused.  The  court  was  convened,  John  was  declared 
a  traitor,  and  sentenced  to  forfeit  all  his  lands  on  the  continent. 

P'or  a  long  time  he  made  no  attempt  to  defend  his  dominions, 
but  left  his  Norman  nobles  to  carry  on  a  war  against  Philip  as 
best  they  could.  At  last,  after  much  territory  had  been  lost,  the 
English  King  made  an  attempt  to  regain  it.  But  John’s  famous 
Norman  stronghold  of  Chateau  Gaillard,2 3  or  “  Saucy  Castle,”  fell, 
and  then  the  end  speedily  came.  Philip  seized  Normandy  and 
followed  up  the  victory  by  depriving  John  of  all  his  possessions 
north  of  the  river  Loire.8 

244.  Good  Results  of  the  Loss  of  Normandy.  —  From  that 
period  the  Norman  nobles  were  compelled  to  choose  between  the 
island  of  England  and  the  continent  for  their  home.  Before  that 
time  the  Norman’s  contempt  for  the  Saxon  was  so  great,  that 
his  most  indignant  exclamation  was,  “  Do  you  take  me  for  an 
Englishman  ?  ” 

Now,  however,  shut  in  by  the  sea,  with  the  people  he  had 
hitherto  oppressed  and  despised,  he  gradually  came  to  regard 
England  as  his  country,  and  Englishmen  as  his  countrymen. 
Thus  the  two  races  so  long  hostile  found  at  last  that  they  had 
common  interests  and  common  enemies.4 


1  Hut  M.  Bdmont,  a  recent  French  writer,  believes  that  John’s  condemnation  and 
the  forfeiture  of  Normandy  took  place  before  Arthur’s  death. 

2  Chateau  Gaillard  (Shah'  toe'  Gay'  yare'). 

3  See  Map  No.  8,  facing  page  88. 


4  Macaulay’s  England. 


104  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1199-1216 


245.  The  King’s  Despotism. — Hitherto  our  sympathies  have 
been  mainly  with  the  kings.  We  have  watched  them  struggling 
against  the  lawless  nobles  (§  224),  and  every  gain  which  they  have 
made  in  power  we  have  felt  to  be  so  much  for  the  cause  of  good 
government.  But  we  are  coming  to  a  period  when  our  sympa¬ 
thies  will  be  the  other  way.  Henceforth  the  welfare  of  the  nation 
will  depend  largely  on  the  resistance  of  these  very  barons  to  the 
despotic  encroachments  of  the  Crown.1 

246.  Quarrel  of  the  King  with  the  Church  (1208).  —  Shortly 
after  his  defeat  in  France,  John  entered  upon  his  second  quarrel. 
Pope  Innocent  III  had  commanded  a  delegation  of  the  monks  of 
Canterbury  to  choose  Stephen  Langton  archbishop  in  place  of  a 
person  whom  the  King  had  compelled  them  to  elect.  AVhen  the 
news  reached  John,  he  forbade  Langton’s  landing  in  England, 
although  it  was  his  native  country. 

The  Pope  forthwith  declared  the  kingdom  under  an  interdict, 
or  suspension  of  religious  services.  For  two  years  the  churches 
were  hung  in  mourning,  the  bells  ceased  to  ring,  the  doors  were 
shut  fast.  For  two  years  the  priests  denied  the  sacraments  to 
the  living  and  funeral  prayers  for  the  dead.  At  the  end  of  that 
time  the  Pope,  by  a  bull  of  excommunication  (§  2 18), 2  cut  off 
the  King  as  a  withered  branch  from  the  Church.  John  laughed 
at  the  interdict,  and  met  the  decree  of  excommunication  with 
such  cruel  treatment  of  the  priests  that  they  fled  terrified  from 
the  land. 

The  Pope  now  took  a  third  step ;  he  deposed  John,  and 
ordered  Philip  of  France  to  seize  the  English  crown.  Then 
John,  knowing  that  he  stood  alone,  made  a  virtue  of  necessity. 
He  kneeled  at  the  feet  of  the  Pope’s  legate,  or  representative, 
accepted  Stephen  Langton  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
promised  to  pay  a  yearly  tax  to  Rome  of  1O00  marks  (about 
$64,000  in  modern  money)  for  permission  to  keep  his  crown. 
The  Pope  was  satisfied  with  the  victory  he  had  gained  over  his 
ignoble  foe,  and  peace  was  made. 

1  Ransome’s  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

2  Bull  (Latin  bulla ,  a  leaden  seal)  :  a  decree  issued  by  the  Pope,  bearing  his  seal. 


1199-1216]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


105 


247.  The  Great  Charter.  —  But  peace  in  one  direction  did  not 
mean  peace  in  all.  John’s  tyranny,  brutality,  and  disregard  of  his 
subjects’  welfare  had  gone  too  far.  He  had  refused  the  Church 
the  right  to  fill  its  offices  and  to  enjoy  its  revenues.  He  had 
extorted  exorbitant  sums  from  the  barons. 

He  had  violated  the  charters  of  London  and  other  cities.  He 
had  compelled  merchants  to  pay  large  sums  for  the  privilege  of 
carrying  on  their  business  unmolested.  He  had  imprisoned  men 
on  false  or  frivolous  charges,  and  refused  to  bring  them  to  trial. 
He  had  unjustly  claimed  heavy  sums  from  villeins  (§  160)  and 
other  poor  men  ;  and  when  they  could  not  pay,  had  seized  their 
carts  and  tools,  thus  depriving  them  of  their  means  of  livelihood. 

Those  who  had  suffered  these  and  greater  wrongs  were  deter¬ 
mined  to  have  reformation,  and  to  have  it  in  the  form  of  a  written 
charter  or  pledge  bearing  the  King’s  seal.  The  new  archbishop 
was  not  less  determined.  He  no  sooner  landed  than  he  demanded 
of  the  King  that  he  should  swear  to  observe  the  laws  of  Edward 
the  Confessor  (§109),  a  phrase1  in  which  the  whole  of  the 
national  liberties  was  summed  up. 

248.  Preliminary  Meeting  at  St.  Albans  (1213).  —  In  the 
summer  (1213),  a  council  was  held  at  St.  Albans,  near  London, 
composed  of  representatives  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom.  It 
was  the  first  assembly  of  the  kind  on  record.  It  convened  to 
consider  what  claims  should  be  made  on  the  King  in  the  interest 
of  the  nobles,  the  clergy,  and  the  country. 

Their  deliberations  took  shape  probably  under  Archbishop 
Langton’s  guiding  hand.  He  had  obtained  a  copy  of  the  char¬ 
ter  granted  by  Henry  I  (§  185).  This  was  used  as  a  model  for 
drawing  up  a  new  one  of  similar  character,  but  in  every  respect 
fuller  and  stronger  in  its  provisions. 

249.  Battle  of  Bouvines  ;  Second  Meeting  of  the  Barons  (1214). 
—  John  foolishly  set  out  to  fight  the  French  at  the  same  time 
that  the  English  barons  were  preparing  to  bring  him  to  terms. 
He  was  defeated  in  the  decisive  battle  of  Bouvines,2  and  returned 

1  Not  necessarily  the  laws  made  by  that  King,  but  rather  the  customs  and  rights 
enjoyed  by  the  people  during  his  reign.  2  Bouvines  (Boo'  veen')- 


106  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1199-1216 


to  England  crestfallen  (1214),  and  in  no  condition  to  resist 
demands  at  home.  Late  in  the  autumn,  the  barons  met  in  the 
abbey  church  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  in  Suffolk,  under  their 
leader,  Robert  Fitz-Walter,  of  London.  Advancing  one  by  one 
up  the  church  to  the  high  altar,  they  solemnly  swore  that  they 
would  oblige  John  to  grant  the  new  charter,  or  they  would  declare 
war  against  him. 

250.  The  King  grants  the  Charter,  1215.  —  At  Easter  (1215), 
the  same  barons,  attended  by  two  thousand  armed  knights,  met 
the  King  at  Oxford  and  made  known  to  him  their  demands. 
John  tried  to  evade  giving  a  direct  answer.  Seeing  that  to  be 
impossible,  and  finding  that  London  was  on  the  side  of  the 
barons,  he  yielded  and  requested  them  to  name  the  day  and 
place  for  the  ratification  of  the  charter. 

“Let  the  day  be  the  15th  of  June,  the  place  Runnymede,”  1 
was  the  reply.  In  accordance  therewith,  we  read  at  the  foot  of 
the  shrivelled  parchment  preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  “Given 
under  our  hand  ...  in  the  meadow  called  Runnymede,  between 
Windsor  and  Staines,  on  the  15  th  of  June,  in  the  seventeenth  year 
of  our  reign.” 

251.  Terms  and  Value  of  the  Charter,  1215  ;  England  leads  in 
Constitutional  Government.  —  By  the  terms  of  that  document, 
henceforth  to  be  known  as  Magna  Carta,2  or  the  Great  Charter, 
—  a  term  used  to  emphatically  distinguish  it  from  all  previous 
and  partial  charters,  —  it  was  stipulated  that  the  following  griev¬ 
ances  should  be  redressed  :  — 

First,  those  of  the  Church ;  secondly,  those  of  the  barons  and 
their  vassals  or  tenants  ;  thirdly,  those  of  citizens  and  tradesmen  ; 
fourthly,  those  of  freemen  and  villeins  or  serfs  (§  160). 

This,  then,  was  the  first  agreement  entered  into  between  the 
King  and  all  classes  of  his  people.  Of  the  sixty-three  articles 
which  constituted  it,  the  greater  part,  owing  to  the  changes  of 
time,  are  now  obsolete  ;  but  three  possess  imperishable  value. 

1  Runnymede :  about  twenty  miles  southwest  of  London,  on  the  south  bank  of 
the  Thames,  in  Surrey. 

2  Magna  Carta :  carta  is  the  spelling  in  the  mediaeval  Latin  of  this  and  the 
preceding  charters.  See  Constitutional  Documents  in  Appendix,  page  xxix. 


1199-1216]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS  107 

These  provide  :  ( 1 )  that  no  free  man  shall  be  imprisoned  or 
proceeded  against  except  by  his  peers,1  or  the  law  of  the  land ; 
(2)  that  justice  shall  neither  be  sold ,  denied ,  ?ior  delayed ;  (3)  that 
all  dues  from  the  people  to  the  king,  unless  otherwise  distinctly 
specified,  shall  be  itnposed  only  with  the  consent  of  the  National 
Council  (§  194).  This  last  expedient  converted  the  power  of 
taxation  into  the  shield  of  liberty.2 

Thus,  for  the  first  time,  the  interests  of  all  classes  were  pro¬ 
tected,  and  for  the  first  time  the  English  people  appear  in  the 
constitutional  history  of  the  country  as  a  united  body.  So  highly 
was  this  charter  esteemed,  that  in  the  course  of  the  next  two 
centuries  it  was  confirmed  no  less  than  thirty-seven  times ;  and 
the  very  day  that  Charles  II  entered  London,  after  the  civil  wars 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  House  of  Commons  asked  him 
to  confirm  it  again.  Magna  Carta  was  the  first  great  step  in  that 
development  of  constitutional  government  in  which  England  has 
taken  the  lead. 

252.  John’s  Efforts  to  break  the  Charter  (1215).  —  But  John 
had  no  sooner  set  his  hand  to  this  document  than  he  determined 
to  repudiate  it.  He  hired  bands  of  soldiers  on  the  continent  to 
come  to  his  aid.  The  charter  had  been  obtained  by  armed 
revolt ;  for  this  reason  the  Pope  opposed  it.  He  suspended  Arch¬ 
bishop  Langton  (§  248),  and  threatened  the  barons  with  excom¬ 
munication  if  they  persisted  in  enforcing  the  provisions  of  the 
charter. 

253.  The  Barons  invite  Louis  of  France  to  aid  them  ( 12x5).  — 

In  their  desperation,  —  for  the  King’s  hired  foreign  soldiers  were 
now  ravaging  the  country,  —  the  barons  despatched  a  messenger 
to  John’s  sworn  enemy,  Philip  of  France.  They  invited  him  to 
send  over  his  son  Louis  to  free  them  from  tyranny,  and  become 
ruler  of  the  kingdom.  He  came  with  all  speed,  and  soon  made 
himself  master  of  the  southern  counties. 

1  Peers  (from  Latin  fares) :  equals.  This  secures  trial  by  jury. 

2  Mackintosh.  This  provision  was  finally  dropped  in  the  next  reign  (see 
Stubbs)  ;  but  after  the  great  civil  war  of  the  seventeenth  century  (§  493)  the 
principle  it  laid  down  was  firmly  established. 


108  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1199-1216 


254.  The  King’s  Death  (1216). — John  had  styled  himself  on 
his  great  seal  “  King  of  England  ”  ;  thus  formally  claiming  the 
actual  ownership  of  the  realm.  He  was  now  to  find  that  the 
sovereign  who  has  no  place  in  his  subjects’  hearts  has  srhall  hold 
of  their  possessions. 

The  rest  of  his  ignominious  reign  was  spent  in  war  against  the 
barons  and  Louis  of  France.  “They  have  placed  twenty-five 
kings  over  me  !  ”  he  shouted,  in  his  fury,  referring  to  the  twenty- 
five  leading  men  who  had  been  appointed  to  see  that  the  charter 
did  not  become  a  dead  letter.  But  the  twenty-five  did  their  duty, 
and  the  battle  went  on. 

In  the  midst  of  it  John  suddenly  died,  as  the  old  record  said, 
“  a  knight  without  truth,  a  king  without  justice,  a  Christian  with¬ 
out  faith.”  He  was  buried  in  Worcester  Cathedral,  wrapped  in 
a  monk’s  gown,  and  placed,  for  further  protection,  between  the 
bodies  of  two  Saxon  saints. 

255.  Summary.  — John’s  reign  may  be  regarded  as  a  turning 
point  in  English  history. 

1.  Through  the  loss  of  Normandy,  the  Norman  nobility  found 
it  for  their  interest  to  make  the  welfare  of  England  and  of  the 
English  race  one  with  their  own.  Thus  the  two  peoples  became 
more  and  more  united,  until  finally  all  differences  ceased. 

2.  In  demanding  and  obtaining  the  Great  Charter,  the  Church 
and  the  nobility  made  common  cause  with  the  people.  That 
document  represents  the  victory,  not  of  a  class,  but  of  the  nation. 
The  next  eighty  years  will  be  mainly  taken  up  with  the  efforts  of 
the  nation  to  hold  fast  what  it  has  gained. 

HENRY  III— 1216-1272 

256.  Accession  and  Character.  —  John’s  eldest  son,  Henry,  wras 
crowned  at  the  age  of  nine.  During  his  long  and  feeble  reign 
England’s  motto  might  well  have  been  the  warning  words  of 
Scripture,  “  Woe  to  thee,  O  land,  w'hen  thy  king  is  a  child  !  ” 
since  a  child  he  remained  to  the  last ;  for  if  John’s  heart  was  of 
millstone,  Henry’s  vras  of  wax. 


1216-1272]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


IO9 


In  one  of  his  poems,  written  perhaps  not  long  after  Henry’s 
death,  Dante  represents  him  as  he  sees  him  in  imagination  just 
on  the  borderland  of  purgatory.  The  King  is  not  in  suffering,  for 
as  he  has  done  no  particular  good,  so  he  has  done  no  great  harm. 
He  appears  “  as  a  man  of  simple  life,  spending  his  time  singing 
psalms  in  a  narrow  valley.”  1 

That  shows  one  side  of  his  negative  character ;  the  other  was 
love  of  extravagance  and  vain  display  joined  to  instability  of 
purpose. 

257.  Reissue  of  the  Great  Charter.  —  Louis,  the  French  prince 
who  had  come  to  England  in  John’s  reign  as  an  armed  claimant 
to  the  throne  (§  253),  finding  that  both  the  barons  and  the  Church 
preferred  an  English  to  a  foreign  king,  now  retired.  During  his 
minority  Henry’s  guardians  twice  reissued  the  Great  Charter 
(§  251):  first,  with  the  final  omission  of  the  article  which 
reserved  the  power  of  taxation  to  the  National  Council,  and, 
lastly,  with  an  addition  declaring  that  no  man  should  lose  life  or 
limb  for  hunting  in  the  royal  forests. 

On  the  last  occasion  the  Council  granted  the  King  in  return 
a  fifteenth  of  their  movable  or  personal  property.  This  tax 
reached  a  large  class  of  people,  like  merchants  in  towns,  who 
were  not  landholders.  On  this  account  it  had  a  decided  influ¬ 
ence  in  making  them  desire  to  have  a  voice  in  the  National 
Council,  or  Parliament,  as  it  began  to  be  called  in  this  reign 
(1246).  It  thus  helped,  as  we  shall  see  later  on,  to  prepare  the 
way  for  an  important  change  in  that  body.2 

258.  Henry’s  Extravagance.  —  When  Henry  became  of  age 
he  entered  upon  a  course  of  extravagant  expenditure.  This,  with 
unwise  and  unsuccessful  wars,  finally  piled  up  debts  to  the  amount 
of  nearly  a  million  of  marks,  or,  in  modern  money,  upwards 
of  ;£i 3,000,000  ($65,000,000).  To  satisfy  the  clamors  of  his 

1  Dante’s  Purgatory,  vii,  131. 

2  The  first  tax  on  movable  or  personal  property  appears  to  have  been  levied  by 
Henry  II,  in  1188,  for  the  support  of  the  crusades.  Under  Henry  III  the  idea  began 
to  become  general  that  no  class  should  be  taxed  without  their  consent ;  out  of  this 
grew  the  representation  of  townspeople  in  Parliament. 


IIO  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1216-1272 


creditors,  he  mortgaged  the  Jews  (§  207),  or  rather  the  right  of 
extorting  money  from  them,  to  his  brother  Richard. 

He  also  violated  charters  and  treaties  in  order  to  compel  the 
nation  to  purchase  their  reissue.  On  the  birth  of  his  first  son, 
Prince  Edward,  he  showed  himself  so  eager  for  congratulatory 
gifts,  that  one  of  the  nobles  present  at  court  said,  “  Heaven  gave 
us  this  child,  but  the  King  sells  him  to  us.” 

259.  His  Church-Building.  —  Still,  not  all  of  the  King’s  extrava¬ 
gance  was  money  thrown  away.  Everywhere  on  the  continent 
magnificent  churches  were  rising.  The  heavy  and  sombre  Norman 
architecture,  with  its  round  arches  and  square,  massive  towers,  was 
giving  place  to  the  more  graceful  Gothic  style,  with  its  pointed 
arch  and  lofty,  tapering  spire. 

The  King  shared  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  those  who  built 
the  grand  cathedrals  of  Salisbury  and  Lincoln.  He  himself 
rebuilt  the  greater  part  of  Westminster  Abbey  (§  no)  as  it  now 
stands.  A  monument  so  glorious  ought  to  make  us  willing  to 
overlook  some  faults  in  the  builder.  Yet  the  expense  and  taxation 
incurred  in  erecting  the  great  minster  must  be  reckoned  among 
the  causes  that  bred  discontent  and  led  to  civil  war. 

260.  Religious  Reformation  (1221) ;  the  Friars;  Roger  Bacon. 
—  While  this  movement,  which  covered  the  land  with  religious 
edifices,  was  in  progress,  religion  itself  was  undergoing  a  change. 
The  old  monastic  orders  had  grown  rich,  indolent,  and  corrupt. 
The  priests  had  well-nigh  ceased  to  do  missionary  work ;  preach¬ 
ing  had  almost  died  out. 

At  this  period  a  reform  sprang  up  within  the  Church  itself.  A 
new  order  of  monks  had  arisen  calling  themselves  in  Norman 
French  Freres,1  or  Brothers,  a  word  which  the  English  turned 
into  Friars.  These  Brothers  bound  themselves  to  a  life  of  self- 
denial  and  good  works.  From  their  living  on  charity  they  came 
to  be  known  as  Mendicant  Friars.  They  went  from  place  to  place 
exhorting  men  to  repentance,  and  proclaiming  the  almost  forgotten 
Gospel  of  Christ. 

Others,  like  Roger  Bacon  at  Oxford,  took  an  important  part  in 

•  1  Freres  (frar). 


1216-1272]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


I  I  I 


education,  and  endeavored  to  rouse  the  sluggish  monks  to  make 
efforts  in  the  same  direction.  Bacon’s  experiments  in  physical 
science,  which  was  then  neglected  and  despised,  got  him  the 
reputation  of  being  a  magician.  He  was  driven  into  exile, 
imprisoned  for  many  years,  and  deprived  of  books  and  writing 
materials. 

But,  as  nothing  could  check  the  religious  fervor  of  his  mendi¬ 
cant  brothers,  so  no  hardship  or  suffering  could  daunt  the  intel¬ 
lectual  enthusiasm  of  Bacon.  When  he  emerged  from  captivity 
he  issued  his  Opus  Majus,1  an  “inquiry,”  as  he  called  it,  “into 
the  roots  of  knowledge.”  It  was  especially  devoted  to  mathe¬ 
matics  and  the  sciences,  and  deserves  the  name  of  the  encyclo¬ 
paedia  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

261.  The  “Mad  Parliament”  ;  the  Provisions  of  Oxford (1258). 
—  But  the  prodigal  expenditure  and  mismanagement  of  Henry 
kept  on  increasing.  At  last  the  burden  of  taxation  became  too 
great  to  bear.  Bad  harvests  had  caused  a  famine,  and  multitudes 
perished  even  in  London.  Confronted  by  these  evils,  Parliament 
met  in  the  Great  Hall  at  Westminster.  Many  of  the  barons  were 
in  complete  armor.  As  the  King  entered  there  was  an  ominous 
clatter  of  swords.  Henry,  looking  around,  asked  timidly,  “  Am  I 
a  prisoner?  ” 

“  No,  sire,”  answered  Earl  Bigod  (§  223)  ;  “but  we  must  have 
reform.”  The  King  agreed  to  summon  a  Parliament  to  meet  at 
Oxford  and  consider  what  should  be  done.  Their  enemies  nick¬ 
named  the  assembly  the  “Mad  Parliament”  (1258)  ;  but  there 
was  method  and  determination  in  their  madness,  for  which 
the  country  was  grateful. 

With  Simon  de  Montfort,  the  King’s  brother-in-law,  at  their 
head,  they  drew  up  a  set  of  articles  or  provisions  (the  Provisions 
of  Oxford)  to  which  Henry  gave  an  unwilling  assent.  It  prac¬ 
tically  took  the  government  out  of  his  inefficient  hands  and  vested 
it  in  the  control  of  three  committees,  or  councils.  (See  Summary 
of  Constitutional  History  in  Appendix,  page  x,  §  n.) 

1  Opus  Majus:  Greater  Work,  to  distinguish  it  from  a  later  summary  entitled 
the  Opus  Minus,  or  Lesser  Work. 


1 12  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1216-1272 

262.  Renewal  of  the  Great  Charter  (1253).  —  Meanwhile  the 
King  had  been  compelled  to  reaffirm  that  Great  Charter  which 
his  father  had  unwillingly  granted  at  Runnymede  (§  250).  Stand¬ 
ing  in  St.  Catherine’s  Chapel  within  the  partially  finished  church 
of  Westminster  Abbey  (§  259),  Henry,  holding  a  lighted  taper  in 
his  hand,  in  company  with  the  chief  men  of  the  realm,  swore 
to  observe  the  provisions  of  the  covenant. 

At  the  close  he  exclaimed,  as  he  dashed  the  taper  on  the  pave¬ 
ment,  while  all  present  repeated  the  words  and  the  action,  “  So 
go  out  with  smoke  and  stench  the  accursed  souls  of  those  who 
break  or  pervert  this  charter.” 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  King  was  insincere  in  his  oath  ; 
but  unfortunately  his  piety  was  that  of  impulse,  not  of  principle. 
The  compact  was  soon  broken,  and  the  land  again  stripped  by 
taxes  extorted  by  violence,  partly  to  cover  Henry’s  own  extrava¬ 
gance,  but  largely  to  swell  the  coffers  of  the  Pope,  who  had 
promised  to  make  his  son,  Prince  Edward,  ruler  over  Sicily. 

263.  Growing  Feeling  of  Discontent.- — During  this  time  the 
barons  were  daily  growing  more  mutinous  and  defiant,  saying 
that  they  would  rather  die  than  be  ruined  by  the  “  Romans,”  as 
they  called  the  papal  power.  To  a  fresh  demand  for  money  Earl 
Bigod  (§  261)  gave  a  flat  refusal.  “Then  I  will  send  reapers  and 
reap  your  fields  for  you,”  cried  the  King  to  him.  “And  I  will 
send  you  back  the  heads  of  your  reapers,”  retorted  the  angry  earl. 

It  was  evident  that  the  nobles  would  make  no  concession.  The 
same  spirit  was  abroad  which,  at  an  earlier  date  (1236),  made  the 
Parliament  of  Merton  declare,  when  asked  to  alter  the  customs 
of  the  country  to  suit  the  ordinances  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
“  We  will  not  change  the  laws  of  England.”  So  now  they  were 
equally  resolved  not  to  pay  the  Pope  money  in  behalf  of  the 
King’s  son. 

264.  Civil  War;  Battle  of  Lewes  (1264). — The  crisis  was  soon 
reached.  War  broke  out  between  the  King  and  his  brother-in- 
law,  Simon  de  Montfort,  Earl  of  Leicester  (§  261),  better  known 
by  his  popular  name  of  Sir  Simon  the  Righteous. 

With  fifteen  thousand  Londoners  and  a  number  of  the  barons, 


1216-1272]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS  I  1 3 

he  met  Henry,  who  had  a  stronger  force,  on  the  heights  above 
the  town  of  Lewes,  in  Sussex.  The  result  of  the  great  battle  fought 
there  was  as  decisive  as  that  fought  two  centuries  before  by 
William  the  Conqueror  (§  150),  not  many  miles  distant  on  the 
same  coast.1 

265.  De  Montfort’s  Parliament;  the  House  of  Commons,  1265. 

—  Bracton,  the  foremost  jurist  of  that  day,  said  in  his  comments 
on  the  dangerous  state  of  the  times,  “  If  the  King  were  without  a 
bridle,  —  that  is,  the  law,  —  his  subjects  ought  to  put  a  bridle 
on  him.” 

Earl  Simon  (§  264)  had  that  bridle  ready,  or  rather  he  saw  clearly 
where  to  get  it.  The  battle  of  Lewes  had  gone  against  Henry, 
who  had  fallen  captive  to  De  Montfort.  As  head  of  the  State  the 
earl  now  called  a  Parliament.  It  differed  from  all  its  predecessors 
in  the  fact  that  for  the  first  time  two  citizens  from  each  city,  and 
two  townsmen  from  each  borough,  or  town,  together  with  two 
knights,  or  country  gentlemen,  from  each  county,  were  summoned 
to  London  to  join  the  barons  and  clergy  in  their  deliberations. 

Thus,  in  the  winter  of  1265,  that  House  of  Commons,  or  legis¬ 
lative  assembly  of  the  people,  originated,  which,  when  fully  estab¬ 
lished  in  the  next  reign,  was  to  sit  for  more  than  three  hundred 
years  in  the  chapter-house2  of  Westminster  Abbey.  At  last  those 
who  had  neither  land  nor  rank,  but  who  paid  taxes  on  personal 
property  only,  had  obtained  representation. 

Henceforth  the  King  had  a  bridle  which  he  could  not  shake 
off.  Henceforth  Magna  Carta  (§251)  was  no  longer  to  be  a  dead 
parchment  promise  of  reform,  rolled  up  and  hidden  away,  but 
was  to  become  a  living,  ever-present,  effective  truth.  (See  §  314, 
and  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix,  page  x,  §  1 1 .) 

From  this  date  the  Parliament  of  England  began  to  lose  its 
exclusive  character  and  to  become  a  true  representative  body 
standing  for  the  whole  nation.  Hence  it  became  the  model 


1  The  village  of  Battle,  which  marks  the  spot  where  the  battle  of  Senlac  or 
Hastings  was  fought,  1066,  is  less  than  twenty  miles  east  of  Lewes  (Lew'ees). 

2  Chapter-house :  the  building  where  the  chapter  or  governing  body  of  an  abbey 
or  cathedral  meet  to  transact  business. 


1 14  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1216-1272 

of  every  such  assembly  which  now  meets,  whether  in  the  old 
world  or  the  new.  It  was  the  beginning  of  what  President 
Lincoln  called  “  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for 
the  people.” 

266.  Earl  Simon’s  Death  (1265).  — Yet  the  same  year  brought 
for  the  earl  a  fatal  reaction.  The  barons,  jealous  of  his  power, 
fell  away  from  him.  Edward,  the  King’s  eldest  son,  gathered 
them  round  the  royal  standard  to  attack  and  crush  the  man  who 
had  humiliated  his  father.  De  Montfort  was  at  Evesham  1 ;  from 
the  top  of  the  church  tower  he  saw  the  prince  approaching. 
“  Commend  your  souls  to  God,”  he  said  to  the  faithful  few  who 
stood  by  him ;  “  for  our  bodies  are  the  foes’  !  ”  There  he  fell. 

In  the  north  aisle  of  Westminster  Abbey,  not  far  from  Henry’s 
tomb,  may  be  seen  the  emblazoned  arms  of  the  brave  earl. 
England,  so  rich  in  effigies  of  her  great  men,  so  faithful,  too,  in 
her  remembrance  of  them,  has  not  yet  set  up  in  the  vestibule  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  among  the  statues  of  her  statesmen,  the 
image  of  him  who  was  in  many  respects  the  leader  of  them  all, 
and  the  real  originator  and  founder  of  the  House  itself. 

267.  Summary.  —  Henry’s  reign  lasted  over  half  a  century. 
During  that  period  England,  as  we  have  seen,  was  not  standing 
still.  It  was  an  age  of  reform.  In  religion  the  Mendicant  Friars 
were  exhorting  men  to  better  lives.  In  education  Roger  Bacon 
and  other  devoted  scholars  were  laboring  to  broaden  knowledge 
and  deepen  thought. 

In  political  affairs  the  people  through  the  House  of  Commons 
now  first  obtained  a  voice.  Henceforth  the  laws  will  be  in  a 
measure  their  work,  and  the  government  will  reflect  in  an  ever- 
increasing  degree  their  will. 

EDWARD  I  — 1272-13072 

268.  Edward  I  and  the  Crusades.  —  Henry’s  son,  Prince 
Edward,  was  in  the  East,  fighting  the  battles  of  the  crusades, 
at  the  time  of  his  father’s  death.  According  to  an  account 


1  Eyesham,  Worcestershire. 


2  Edward  I  was  not  crowned  until  1274. 


1272-1307]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS  I  1 5 

given  in  an  old  Spanish  chronicle,  his  life  was  saved  by  the 
devotion  of  his  wife  Eleanor,  who,  when  her  husband  was  assas¬ 
sinated  with  a  poisoned  dagger,  heroically  sucked  the  poison 
from  the  wound. 

269.  Edward’s  First  or  “Model  Parliament”  (1295). — 
Shortly  after  his  return  to  England,  Edward  convened  a  Parlia¬ 
ment  (1295),  to  which  the  representatives  of  the  people  were 
summoned  (§  265).  This  body  declared  that  all  previous  laws 
should  be  impartially  executed,  and  that  there  should  be  no 
interference  with  elections.1  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  though 
Earl  Simon  the  “  Righteous  ”  (§§  264,  266)  was  dead,  his  reform 
went  on.  It  was  an  illustration  of  the  truth  that  though  “God 
buries  his  workers,  he  carries  on  his  work.” 

Edward  had  the  wisdom  to  adopt  and  perfect  the  example  his 
father’s  conqueror  had  left.  By  him,  though  not  until  near  the 
close  of  his  reign,  Parliament  was  firmly  established,  in  its  twofold 
form,  of  Lords  and  Commons,2  and  became  “  a  complete  image 
of  the  nation.”  (See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in 
Appendix,  page  xi,  §  12.) 

270.  Conquest  of  Wales  (1282) ;  Birth  of  the  First  Prince  of 
Wales.  —  Henry  II  had  labored  to  secure  unity  of  law  for  Eng¬ 
land.  Edward  I’s  aim  was  to  bring  the  whole  island  of  Britain 
under  one  ruler.  On  the  west,  Wales  only  half  acknowledged 
the  power  of  the  English  King,  while,  on  the  north,  Scotland 
was  practically  an  independent  sovereignty.  The  new  King 
determined  to  begin  by  annexing  Wales  to  the  Crown. 

He  accordingly  led  an  army  thither,  and,  after  several  victorious 
battles,  considered  that  he  had  gained  his  end.  To  make  sure  of 
his  new  possessions,  he  erected  along  the  coast  the  magnificent 
castles  of  Conway,  Beaumaris,  Harlech,  and  Caernarvon,  all  of 
which  he  garrisoned  with  bodies  of  troops  ready  to  check  revolt. 

In  the  last-named  stronghold,  tradition  still  points  out  a  little 
dark  chamber  in  the  Eagle  Tower,  more  like  a  state-prison  cell 
than  a  royal  apartment,  where  Edward’s  son,  the  first  Prince  of 
Wales,  was  born.  The  Welsh  had  vowed  that  they  would  never 

1  The  First  Statute  of  Westminster.  2  Lords  include  the  higher  clergy. 


Il6  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1272-1307 


accept  an  Englishman  as  king  ;  but  the  young  prince  was  a  native 
of  their  soil,  and  certainly  in  his  cradle,  at  least,  spoke  as  good 
Welsh  as  their  own  children  of  the  same  age.  No  objection, 
therefore,  could  be  made  to  him  ;  by  this  happy  compromise,  it  is 
said,  Wales  became  a  principality  joined  to  the  English  Crown.1 

271.  Conquest  of  Scotland  (1290-1296)  ;  the  Stone  of  Scone.  — 
An  opportunity  now  presented  itself  for  Edward  to  assert  his 
power  in  Scotland.  Two  claimants,  both  of  Norman  descent,  had 
come  forward  demanding  the  crown.2  One  was  John  Baliol ;  the 
other,  Robert  Brace,  an  ancestor  of  the  famous  king  and  general 
of  that  name,  who  comes  prominently  forward  in  the  next  reign. 
Edward  was  invited  by  the  contestants  to  settle  the  dispute.  He 
decided  in  Baliol’s  favor,  but  insisted,  before  doing  so,  that  the 
latter  should  acknowledge  the  overlordship  of  England,  as  the 
King  of  Scotland  had  done  to  William  I. 

Baliol  made  a  virtue  of  necessity,  and  agreed  to  the  terms ;  but 
shortly  after  formed  a  secret  alliance  with  France  against  Edward, 
which  was  renewed  from  time  to  time,  and  kept  up  between  the 
two  countries  for  three  hundred  years.  It  is  the  key  to  most  of 
the  wars  in  which  England  was  involved  during  that  period. 
Having  made  this  treaty,  Baliol  now  openly  renounced  his  alle¬ 
giance  to  the  English  King.  Edward  at  once  organized  a  force, 
attacked  Baliol,  and  at  the  battle  of  Dunbar  (1296)  compelled 
the  Scottish  nobleman  to  acknowledge  him  as  ruler. 


1  Wales  was  not  wholly  incorporated  with  England  until  two  centuries  later,  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.  It  then  obtained  local  self-government  and  representation  in 
Parliament. 

2  Scotland :  at  the  time  of  the  Roman  conquest  of  Britain,  Scotland  was 
inhabited  by  a  Celtic  race  nearly  akin  to  the  primitive  Irish,  and  more  distantly  so 
to  the  Britons.  In  time,  the  Saxons  from  the  continent  invaded  the  country,  and  set¬ 
tled  on  the  lowlands  of  the  east,  driving  back  the  Celts  to  the  western  highlands. 
Later,  many  English  emigrated  to  Scotland,  especially  at  the  time  of  the  Norman 
Conquest,  where  they  found  a  hearty  welcome. 

In  1072  William  the  Conqueror  compelled  the  Scottish  King  to  acknowledge  him 
as  overlord  ;  and  eventually  so  many  Norman  nobles  established  themselves  in  Scot¬ 
land,  that  they  constituted  the  chief  landed  aristocracy  of  the  country.  The  modern 
Scottish  nation,  though  it  keeps  its  Celtic  name  (Scotland),  is  made  up  in  great 
measure  of  inhabitants  of  English  descent,  the  pure  Scotch  being  confined  mostly  to 
the  Highlands,  and  ranking  in  population  only  as  about  one  to  three  of  the  former. 


1272-1307]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS  II 7 

At  the  Abbey  of  Scone,  near  Perth,  the  English  seized  the 
famous  “Stone  of  Destiny,”  the  palladium  of  Scotland,  on  which 
her  kings  were  crowned.  Carrying  the  trophy  to  Westminster 
Abbey,  Edward  enclosed  it  in  that  ancient  coronation  chair  which 
has  been  used  by  every  sovereign  since,  from  his  son’s  accession 
down  to  that  of  Victoria. 

272.  Confirmation  of  the  Charters  (1297-1299).  —  Edward 
next  prepared  to  attack  France.  In  great  need  of  money,  he 
demanded  a  large  sum  from  the  clergy,  and  seized  a  quantity  of 
wool  in  the  hands  of  the  merchants.  The  barons,  alarmed  at 
these  arbitrary  measures,  insisted  on  the  King’s  reaffirming  all 
previous  charters  of  liberties,  including  the  Great  Charter  (§  25  1). 
Certain  additions  were  made  which  expressly  provided  that  no 
money  or  goods  should  be  taken  by  the  Crown  except  by  the  con¬ 
sent  of  the  people.  Thus  out  of  the  war,  England  “  gained  the  t 
one  thing  it  needed  to  give  the  finishing  touch  to  the  building  up 
of  Parliament ;  namely,  a  solemn  acknowledgment  by  the  King 
that  the  nation  alone  had  power  to  levy  taxes.”  1  (See  Summary 
of  Constitutional  History,  in  Appendix,  page  xi,  §  12.) 

273.  Revolt  and  Death  of  Wallace  (1303). — Scotland,  how¬ 
ever,  was  not  wholly  subdued.  The  patriot,  William  Wallace, 
rose  and  led  his  countrymen  against  the  English,  —  led  them  with 
that  impetuous  valor  which  breathes  in  Burns’  lines  :  — 

“Scots  vvha  ha’e  wi’  Wallace  bled.” 

But  fate  was  against  him.  After  eight  years  of  desperate  fighting, 
the  valiant  soldier  was  captured,  executed  on  lower  Hill  in 
London  as  a  traitor,  and  his  head,  crowned  in  mockery  with  a 
wreath  of  laurel,  set  on  a  pike  on  London  Bridge. 

But  though  the  hero  who  perished  on  the  scaffold  could  not 
prevent  his  country  from  becoming  one  day  a  part  of  England, 
he  did  hinder  its  becoming  so  on  unfair  and  tyrannical  terms. 

“  Scotland,”  says  Carlyle,  “  is  not  Ireland.  No;  because  brave 
men  arose  there,  and  said,  ‘  Behold,  ye  must  not  tread  us  down 
like  slaves,  —  and  ye  shall  not,  — and  ye  cannot  !  ’  ”  But  Ireland 


1  Rowley,  Rise  of  the  English  People. 


I  1 8  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1272-1307 


failed,  not  for  any  want  of  brave  men,  but  for  lack  of  unity 
among  them. 

274.  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  (1290). — The  darkest  stain  on 
Edward’s  reign  was  his  treatment  of  the  Jews.  Up  to  this  period 
that  unfortunate  race  had  been  protected  by  the  kings  of  England 
as  men  protect  the  cattle  which  they  fatten  for  slaughter.  So 
long  as  they  accumulated  money,  and  so  long  as  the  sovereign 
could  rob  them  of  their  accumulations  when  he  saw  fit,  they  were 
worth  guarding.  A  time  had  now  come  when  the  populace 
demanded  their  expulsion  from  the  island,  on  the  ground  that 
their  usury  and  extortion  were  ruining  the  country. 

Edward  yielded  to  the  clamor,  and  first  stripping  the  Jews  of 
their  possessions,  he  prepared  to  drive  them  into  exile.  It  is  said 
that  even  their  books  were  taken  from  them  and  given  to  the 
libraries  of  Oxford.  Thus  pillaged,  they  were  forced  to  leave  the 
realm,  —  a  miserable  procession,  numbering  some  sixteen  thou¬ 
sand.  Many  perished  on  the  way,  and  so  few  ventured  to  return 
that  for  three  centuries  and  a  half,  until  Cromwell  came  to  power, 
they  disappear  from  English  history  (§  510). 

275.  Death  of  Queen  Eleanor.  —  Shortly  after  this  event,  Queen 
Eleanor  died  (§  268).  The  King  showed  the  love  he  bore  her 
in  the  crosses  he  raised  to  her  memory,  three  of  which  still  stand.1 
These  were  erected  at  the  places  where  her  body  was  set  down, 
in  its  transit  from  Grantham,  in  Lincolnshire,  where  she  died,  to 
the  little  village  of  Charing  (now  Charing  Cross,  the  geographical 
centre  of  London).  This  was  its  last  station  before  reaching  its 
final  resting-place,  in  that  abbey  at  Westminster,  which  holds  such 
wealth  of  historic  dust.  Around  Queen  Eleanor’s  tomb  wax-lights 
were  kept  constantly  burning,  until  the  Protestant  Reformation 
extinguished  them,  nearly  three  hundred  years  later. 

276.  Edward’s  Reforms  ;  Statute  of  Winchester  (1285).  — The 
condition  of  England  when  Edward  came  to  the  throne  was  far 
from  settled.  The  country  was  overrun  with  marauders.  To 

1  Originally  there  were  thirteen  of  these  crosses.  Of  these,  three  remain :  viz., 
at  Northampton,  at  Geddington,  near  by,  and  at  Waltham,  about  twelve  miles 
northeast  of  London. 


1272-1307]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


I  19 

suppress  these,  the  Statute  of  Winchester  made  the  inhabitants 
of  every  district  punishable  by  fines  for  crimes  committed  within 
their  limits.  Every  walled  town  had  to  close  its  gates  at  sunset, 
and  no  stranger  could  be  admitted  during  the  night  unless  some 
citizen  would  be  responsible  for  him. 

To  clear  the  roads  of  the  robbers  that  infested  them,  it  was 
ordered  that  all  highways  between  market  towns  should  be  kept 
free  of  underbrush  for  two  hundred  feet  on  each  side,  in  order 
that  desperadoes  might  not  lie  in  ambush  for  travellers. 

Every  citizen  was  required  to  keep  arms  and  armor,  according 
to  his  condition  in  life,  and  to  join  in  the  pursuit  and  arrest  of 
criminals. 

277.  Land  Legislation  (1285,  1290).  — Two  important  statutes 
were  passed  during  this  reign,  respecting  the  free  sale  or  transfer 
of  land.1 

Their  effect  was  to  confine  the  great  estates  to  the  hands  of 
their  owners  and  direct  descendants,  or,  when  land  changed  hands, 
to  keep  alive  the  claims  of  the  great  lords  or  the  Crown  upon  it. 
These  laws  rendered  it  difficult  for  landholders  to  evade,  as  they 
hitherto  frequently  had,  their  feudal  duties  to  the  King  (§  200) 
by  the  sale  or  subletting  of  estates.  'While  they  often  built  up 
the  great  families,  they  also  operated  to  strengthen  the  power  of 
the  Crown  at  the  very  time  when  that  of  Parliament  and  the 
people  was  increasing  as  a  check  upon  its  authority. 

278.  Legislation  respecting  the  Church  ;  Statute  of  Mortmain 
(1279). — A  third  enactment  checked  the  undue  increase  of 
church  property.  Through  gifts  and  bequests  the  clergy  had 
become  owners  of  a  very  large  part  of  the  most  fertile  soil  of  the 
realm.  No  farms,  herds  of  cattle,  or  flocks  of  sheep  compared 
with  theirs.  These  lands  were  said  to  be  in  mortmain,  or  “dead 
hands  ”  ;  since  the  Church,  being  a  corporation,  never  let  go 

1  These  laws  may  be  regarded  as  the  foundation  of  the  English  system  of 
landed  property ;  they  completed  the  feudal  claim  to  the  soil  established  by 
William  the  Conqueror.  They  are  known  as  the  Second  Statute  of  Westminster 
»(De  Donis,  or  Entail,  1285)  and  the  Third  Statute  of  Westminster  (Quia  Emptores, 
1290).  See  §  316,  and  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  Appendix,  page 


120  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1272-1307 


its  hold,  but  kept  its  property  with  the  tenacity  of  a  dead 
man’s  grasp. 

The  clergy  constantly  strove  to  get  these  church  lands  exempted 
from  furnishing  soldiers,  or  paying  taxes  to  the  King.  Instead  of 
men  or  money  they  offered  prayers.  Practically,  the  Government 
succeeded  from  time  to  time  in  compelling  them  to  do  consider¬ 
ably  more  than  this,  but  seldom  without  a  violent  straggle,  as  in 
the  case  of  Henry  II  and  Becket  (§  214). 

On  account  of  these  exemptions  it  had  become  the  practice 
with  many  persons  who  wished  to  escape  bearing  their  just  share 
of  the  support  of  the  Government,  to  give  their  lands  to  the 
Church,  and  then  receive  them  again  as  tenants  of  some  abbot 
or  bishop.  In  this  way  they  evaded  their  military  and  pecuniary 
obligations  to  the  Crown.  To  put  a  stop  to  this  practice,  and  so 
make  all  landed  proprietors  do  their  part,  the  Statute  of  Mort¬ 
main  was  passed  (1279).  It  required  the  donor  of  an  estate  to 
the  Church  to  obtain  a  royal  license  ;  which,  it  is  perhaps  needless 
to  say,  was  not  readily  granted.1 

279.  Death  of  Edward.  —  Edward  died  while  endeavoring  to 
subdue  a  revolt  in  Scotland,  in  which  Robert  Bruce,  grandson 
of  the  first  of  that  name  (§  271),  had  seized  the  throne.  His 
last  request  was  that  his  son  Edward  should  continue  the  war. 
“  Carry  my  bones  before  you  on  your  march,”  said  the  dying 
King,  “  for  the  rebels  will  not  be  able  to  endure  the  sight  of  me, 
alive  or  dead  !  ” 

Not  far  from  the  beautiful  effigy  of  Queen  Eleanor  at  West¬ 
minster  Abbey,  “  her  husband  rests  in  a  severely  simple  tomb. 
Pass  it  not  by  for  its  simplicity  ;  few  tombs  hold  nobler  dust.”  2 

280.  Summary.  —  During  Edward  I’s  reign,  the  following 
changes  took  place  :  — 

1.  Wales  and  Scotland  were  conquered,  and  the  first  remained 
permanently  a  part  of  the  English  kingdom. 

2.  The  landed  proprietors  of  the  whole  country  were  made 
more  directly  responsible  to  the  Crown. 

1  See  §  200,  note  on  Clergy,  and  see  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in 
Appendix,  page  x,  §  u.  2  See  Goldwin  Smith’s  History  of  the  United  Kingdom. 


1272-1307]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


I  2  I 


3.  The  excessive  growth  of  church  property  was  checked. 

4.  Laws  for  the  better  suppression  of  acts  of  violence  were 
enacted  and  rigorously  enforced. 

5.  The  Great  Charter,  with  additional  articles  for  the  protec¬ 
tion  of  the  people,  was  confirmed  by  the  King,  and  the  power  of 
taxation  expressly  acknowledged  to  reside  in  Parliament  only. 

6.  Parliament,  a  legislative  body  now  representing  all  classes 
of  the  nation,  was  permanently  organized,  and  for  the  first  time 
regularly  and  frequently  summoned  by  the  King.1 

' 

EDWARD  II — 1307-1327 

281.  Accession  and  Character.  — The  son  to  whom  Edward  left 
his  power  was  in  every  respect  his  opposite.  The  old  definition 
of  the  word  “king”  was  “  the  man  who  can,”  or  the  able  man. 
The  modern  explanation  usually  makes  him  “  the  chief  or  head  of 
a  people.” 

Edward  II  would  satisfy  neither  of  these  definitions.  He 
lacked  all  disposition  to  do  anything  himself ;  he  equally  lacked 
power  to  incite  others  to  do.  By  nature  he  was  a  jester,  trifler, 
and  waster  of  time. 

Being  such,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  he  did  not  push 
the  war  with  Scotland.  Robert  Bruce  (§  279)  did  not  expect  that 
he  would ;  that  valiant  fighter,  indeed,  hefd  the  new  English 
sovereign  in  utter  contempt,  saying  that  he  feared  the  dead 
father  much  more  than  the  living  son. 

282.  Piers  Gaveston  ;  the  Lords  Ordainers  ;  Articles  of  Reform  ; 
Gain  by  the  House  of  Commons  (1322).  —  During  the  first  five 
years  of  his  reign,  Edward  did  little  more  than  lavish  wealth  and 
honors  on  his  chief  favorite  and  adviser,  Piers  Gaveston,  a  French¬ 
man  who  had  been  his  companion  and  playfellow  from  childhood. 
While  Edward  I  was  living,  Parliament  had  with  his  sanction  ban¬ 
ished  Gaveston  from  the  kingdom,  as  a  man  of  corrupt  practices, 

lit  will  be  remembered  that  De  Montfort’s  Parliament  in  1265  (§265)  was  not 
regularly  and  legally  summoned,  since  the  King  (Henry  III)  was  at  that  time  a 
captive.  The  first  Parliament  (including  a  House  of  Commons,  Lords,  and  Clergy), 
which  was  convened  by  the  Crown,  was  that  called  by  Edward  I  in  1295  (§  269). 


122 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1307-1327 


but  Edward  II  was  no  sooner  crowned  than  he  recalled  him, 
and  gave  him  the  government  of  the  realm  during  his  absence 
in  France,  on  the  occasion  of  his  marriage. 

On  his  return,  the  barons  protested  against  the  monopoly  of 
privileges  by  a  foreigner,  and  the  King  was  obliged  to  consent  to 
his  banishment.  He  soon  came  back,  however,  and  matters  went 
on  from  bad  to  worse.  Finally  the  indignation  of  the  nobles  rose 
to  such  a  pitch,  that  at  the  council  held  at  Westminster  the  gov¬ 
ernment  was  virtually  taken  from  the  King’s  hands  and  vested  in 
a  body  of  barons  and  bishops. 

The  head  of  this  committee  was  the  King’s  cousin,  the  Earl  of 
Lancaster  ;  and  from  the  Ordinances  or  Articles  of  Reform  which 
they  drew  up  for  the  management  of  affairs  they  got  the  name  of 
the  Lords  Ordainers.  Gaveston  was  now  sent  out  of  the  country 
for  a  third  time  ;  but  the  King  persuaded  him  to  return,  and  gave 
him  the  office  of  secretary  of  state.  This  last  insult  —  for  so  the 
Lords  Ordainers  regarded  it  —  was  too  much  for  the  nobility 
to  bear. 

They  resolved  to  exile  the  hated  favorite  once  more,  but  this 
time  to  send  him  “  to  that  country  from  which  no  traveller 
returns.”  Edward,  taking  the  alarm,  placed  Gaveston  in  Scar¬ 
borough  Castle 1  for  safety.  The  barons  besieged  it,  starved 
Gaveston  into  surrender,  and  beheaded  him  forthwith.  Thus 
ended  the  first  favorite. 

Later  (1322),  the  important  principle  was  established  that 
whatever  concerns  the  whole  realm  must  be  treated  by  a  com¬ 
plete  Parliament.  The  House  of  Commons  now  finally  gained 
a  share  in  legislation. 

283.  Scotland  regains  its  Independence;  Bannockburn  (1314). 

—  Seeing  Edward’s  lack  of  manly  fibre,  Robert  Bruce  (§  281),  who 
had  been  crowned  King  of  the  Scots,  determined  to  make  himself 
ruler  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name.  He  had  suffered  many  defeats; 
he  had  wandered  a  fugitive  in  forests  and  glens ;  he  had  been 
hunted  with  bloodhounds  like  a  wild  beast ;  but  he  had  never 
lost  courage  or  hope.  On  the  field  of  Bannockburn  (1314)  he 

1  Scarborough  :  on  the  coast  of  Yorkshire. 


1307-1327]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


123 


once  again  met  the  English,  and  in  a  bloody  and  decisive  battle 
drove  them  back  like  frightened  sheep  into  their  own  country.1 
By  this  victory,  Bruce  reestablished  the  independence  of  Scot¬ 
land, —  an  independence  which  continued  until  the  rival  king¬ 
doms  were  peacefully  united  under  one  crown,  by  the  accession 
of  a  Scotch  king  to  the  English  throne.2 

284.  The  New  Favorites;  the  King  made  Prisoner  (1314-1326). 
—  For  the  next  seven  years  the  Earl  of  Lancaster  (§  282)  had  his 
own  way  in  England.  During  this  time  Edward,  whose  weak 
nature  needed  some  one  to  lean  on,  had  got  two  new  favorites, — 
Hugh  Despenser  and  his  son.  They  were  men  of  more  character 
than  Gaveston  (§  282)  ;  but  as  they  cared  chiefly  for  their  own 
interests,  they  incurred  the  hatred  of  the  baronage. 

The  King’s  wife,  Isabelle  of  France,  now  turned  against  him. 
She  had  formerly  acted  as  a  peacemaker,  but  from  this  time  did 
all  in  her  power  to  the  contrary.  Roger  Mortimer,  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  barons,  was  the  sworn  enemy  of  the  Despensers. 
The  Queen  had  formed  a  guilty  attachment  for  him.  Together 
they  plotted  the  ruin  of  Edward  and  his  favorites.  They  raised 
a  force,  seized  and  executed  the  Despensers  (1326),  and  then 
took  the  King  prisoner. 

285.  Deposition  and  Murder  of  the  King  (1327).  —  Having 
imprisoned  Edward  in  Kenilworth  Castle,3  the  barons  now  resolved 
to  remove  him  from  the  throne.  Parliament  drew  up  articles  of 
deposition  against  him,  and  appointed  commissioners  to  demand 
his  resignation  of  the  crown. 

When  they  went  to  the  castle,  Edward  appeared  before  them 
clad  in  deep  mourning.  Presently  he  sank  fainting  to  the  floor. 
On  his  recovery  he  burst  into  a  fit  of  weeping.  Then,  checking 
himself,  he  thanked  Parliament  through  the  commissioners  for 
having  chosen  his  eldest  son  Edward,  a  boy  of  fourteen,  to  rule 
over  the  nation. 

Sir  William  Trussel  then  stepped  forward  and  said  :  “  Unto 

1  Bannockburn  is  northwest  of  Edinburgh.  See  Map  No.  9,  facing  page  122. 

2  James  VI  of  Scotland  and  I  of  England,  in  1603. 

3  Kenilworth  Castle,  Warwickshire. 


124  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1307-1327 


thee,  O  King,  I,  William  Trussel,  in  the  name  of  all  men  of  this 
land  of  England  and  Speaker  of  this  Parliament,  renounce  to 
you,  Edward,  the  homage  [oath  of  allegiance]  that  was  made 
to  you  some  time  ;  and  from  this  time  forth  I  defy  thee  and 
deprive  thee  of  all  royal  power,  and  I  shall  never  be  attendant 
on  thee  as  King  from  this  time.” 

Then  Sir  Thomas  Blount,  steward  of  the  King’s  household, 
advanced,  broke  his  staff  of  office  before  the  King’s  face,  and 
proclaimed  the  royal  household  dissolved. 

Edward  was  soon  after  committed  to  Berkeley  Castle,1  in 
Gloucestershire.  There,  by  the  order  of  Mortimer,  with  the 
connivance  of  Queen  Isabelle,  the  “  she-wolf  of  France,”  who 
acted  as  his  companion  in  iniquity,  the  King  was  secretly  and 
horribly  murdered. 

286.  Summary.  —  The  lesson  of  Edward  II’s  career  is  found 
m  its  culmination.  Other  sovereigns  had  been  guilty  of  misgov- 
ernment,  others  had  put  unworthy  and  grasping  favorites  in  power, 
but  he  was  the  first  King  whom  Parliament  had  deposed. 

By  that  act  it  became  evident  that  great  as  was  the  power  of 
the  King,  there  had  now  come  into  existence  a  greater  still,  which 
could  not  only  make  but  unmake  him  who  sat  on  the  throne. 


287.  Edward’s  Accession;  Execution  of  Mortimer. — Edward  III, 
son  of  Edward  II,  was  crowned  at  fourteen.  Until  he  became 
of  age,  the  government  was  nominally  in  the  hands  of  a  council, 
but  really  in  the  control  of  Queen  Isabelle  and  her  “  gentle 
Mortimer,”  the  two  murderers  of  his  father. 

Early  in  his  reign  Edward  attempted  to  reconquer  Scotland,  but 
failing  in  his  efforts,  made  a  peace  acknowledging  the  inde¬ 
pendence  of  that  country.  At  home,  however,  he  now  gained 

1  Berkeley  Castle  continues  in  the  possession  of  the  Berkeley  family.  It  is  con¬ 
sidered  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  feudal  architecture  now  remaining  in  England. 
Over  the  stately  structure  still  floats  the  standard  borne  in  the  crusades  by  an 
ancestor  of  the  present  Lord  Berkeley. 


•327-!377]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS  1 25 

a  victory  which  compensated  him  for  his  disappointment  in  not 
subduing  the  Scots. 

Mortimer  was  staying  with  Queen  Isabelle  at  Nottingham 
Castle.  Edward  obtained  entrance  by  a  secret  passage,  carried 
him  off  captive,  and  soon  after  brought  him  to  the  gallows.  He 
next  seized  his  mother,  the  Queen,  and  kept  her  in  confinement 
for  the  rest  of  her  life  in  Castle  Rising,  Norfolk. 

288.  The  Rise  of  English  Commerce ;  Wool  Manufacture,  1339. 
—  The  reign  of  Edward  III  is  directly  connected  with  the  rise 
of  a  flourishing  commerce  with  the  continent.  In  the  early  ages 
of  its  history  England  was  almost  wholly  an  agricultural  country. 
At  length  the  farmers  in  the  eastern  counties  began  to  turn  their 
attention  to  wool-growing.  They  exported  the  fleeces,  which 
were  considered  the  finest  in  the  world,  to  the  Flemish  cities 
of  Ghent  and  Bruges.1  There  they  were  woven  into  cloth,  and 
returned  to  be  sold  in  the  English  market ;  for,  as  an  old  writer 
quaintly  remarks,  “The  English  people  at  that  time  knew  no  more 
what  to  do  with  the  wool  than  the  sheep  on  whose  backs  it  grew.”  2 

Through  the  influence  of  Edward’s  wife,  Queen  Philippa,  who 
was  a  native  of  a  province  adjoining  Flanders,3  which  was  also 
extensively  engaged  in  the  production  of  cloth,  woollen  factories 
were  now  established  at  Norwich  and  other  towns  in  the  east  of 
England,  1339.  Skilled  Flemish  workmen  were  induced  to  come 
over,  and  by  their  help  England  successfully  laid  the  foundation 
of  one  of  her  greatest  and  most  lucrative  industries. 

From  that  time  wool  was  considered  a  chief  source  of  the 
national  wealth.  Eater,  that  the  fact  might  be  kept  constantly  in 
mind,  a  square  crimson  bag  filled  with  it  —  the  “  Woolsack  ”  — 
became,  and  still  continues  to  be,  the  seat  of  the  Lord  Chancellor 
in  the  House  of  Lords. 

289.  The  Beginning  of  the  Hundred  Years’  War,  1338.  — 

Indirectly,  this  trade  between  England  and  Flanders  helped  to 

1  Ghent  (Gent)  ;  Bruges  (Brooje). 

2  Fuller.  This  remark  applies  to  the  production  of  fine  woollens  only.  The 
English  had  long  manufactured  common  grades  of  woollen  cloth  to  some  extent. 

3  Flanders :  a  part  of  the  Netherlands,  or  Low  Countries.  The  latter  then 
embraced  Holland,  Belgium,  and  a  portion  of  Northern  France. 


126  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1327-1377 


bring  on  a  war  of  such  duration  that  it  received  the  name  of  the 
Hundred  Years’  War. 

Flanders  was  at  that  time  a  dependency  of  France ;  but  the 
great  commercial  towns  were  rapidly  rising  in  power,  and  were 
restive  and  rebellious  under  the  exactions  and  extortion  of  their 
feudal  master,  Count  Louis.  Their  business  interests  bound  them 
strongly  to  England ;  and  they  were  anxious  to  form  an  alliance 
with  Edward  against  Philip  VI  of  France,  who  was  determined  to 
bring  the  Flemish  cities  into  absolute  subjection. 

Philip  was  by  no  means  unwilling  to  begin  hostilities  with 
England.  He  had  long  looked  with  a  greedy  eye  on  the  tract 
of  country  south  of  the  Loire,1  which  remained  in  possession  of 
the  English  kings,  and  only  wanted  a  pretext  for  annexing  it. 
Through  his  alliance  with  Scotland,  he  was  threatening  to  attack 
Edward’s  kingdom  on  the  north.  Again,  Philip’s  war-vessels  had 
been  seizing  English  ships  laden  with  wool,  so  that  intercourse 
with  Flanders  was  maintained  with  difficulty  and  peril. 

Edward  remonstrated  in  vain  against  these  outrages.  At 
length,  having  concluded  an  alliance  with  Ghent,  the  chief 
Flemish  city,  he  boldly  claimed  the  crown  of  France  as  his  lawful 
right,2  and  followed  the  demand  with  a  declaration  of  war. 

Edward  based  his  claim  on  the  fact  that  through  his  mother 
Isabelle  he  was  nephew  to  the  late  French  King,  Charles  IV, 

1  Aquitaine  (with  the  exception  of  Poitou).  At  a  later  period  the  province  got 
the  name  of  Guienne,  which  was  a  part  of  it.  See  Map  No.  8,  facing  page  88. 

2  Claim  of  Edward  III  to  the  French  Crown 

Philip  III  (of  France)  * 

(1270-1285) 


Philip  IV  Charles,  Count  of 

(1285-1314)  Valois,  d.  1325 

I  I 

|  |  1  . . |  |  Philip  VI 

Louis  X  Philip  V  Charles  IV  Isabelle,  (of  Valois) 
(•IH-Jj16)  (^'G-^22)  (i322~i328)  m.  Edward  II  (1328-1350) 

of  England 

John  I  |  John  II 

(15  N0V.-19  Edward  III  (1350-1364) 

Nov.  1316)  of  England,  1327 

*  The  heavy  lines  indicate  tire  direct  succession.  See  note  on  next  page. 


327-1377]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


127 


whereas  the  reigning  monarch  was  only  cousin.  Nothing  in 
the  law  of  France  seems  to  have  justified  the  English  sovereign 
in  his  claim,  though,  as  we  have  seen,  he  had  good  cause  for 
attacking  Philip  on  other  grounds. 

290.  Battle  of  Cr^cy1  (1346).  —  P'or  the  next  eight  years,  fight¬ 
ing  between  the  two  countries  was  going  on  pretty  constantly  on 
both  land  and  sea,  but  without  decisive  results.  Edward  was 
pressed  for  money,  and  had  to  resort  to  all  sorts  of  expedients  to 
get  it,  even  to  pawning  his  own  and  the  Queen’s  crown,  to  raise 
enough  to  pay  his  troops.  At  last  he  succeeded  in  equipping  a 
strong  force,  and  with  his  son  Edward,  a  lad  of  fifteen,  invaded 
Normandy.2 

His  plan  seems  to  have  been  to  attack  the  French  army  in  the 
south  of  France ;  but  after  landing  he  changed  his  mind,  and 
determined  to  ravage  Normandy,  and  then  march  north  to  meet 
his  Flemish  allies,  who  were  advancing  to  join  him.  At  Crecy, 
near  the  coast,  on  the  way  to  Calais,  a  desperate  battle  took 
place. 

The  French  had  the  larger  force,  but  Edward  the  better  position. 
Philip’s  army  included  a  number  of  hired  Genoese  cross-bowmen, 
on  whom  he  placed  great  dependence  ;  but  a  thunder-storm  had 
wet  their  bowstrings,  which  rendered  them  nearly  useless,  and,  as 
they  advanced  toward  the  English,  the  afternoon  sun  shone  so 
brightly  in  their  eyes  that  they  could  not  take  accurate  aim. 
The  English  archers,  on  the  other  hand,  had  kept  their  long-bows 
in  their  cases,  so  that  the  strings  were  dry  and  ready  for  action. 

In  the  midst  of  the  fight,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  who  was  hard 


When,  in  132S,  Charles  IV  of  France  died  without  leaving  a  son,  his  cousin, 
Philip  of  Valois,  succeeded  him  as  Philip  VI  (the  French  law  excluding  females 
from  the  throne).  Edward  III  of  England  claimed  the  crown,  because  through  his 
mother  Isabelle  he  was  nephew  to  the  late  King,  Charles  IV.  The  French  replied, 
with  truth,  that  his  claim  was  worthless,  since  he  could  not  inherit  from  one  who 
could  not  herself  have  ascended  the  throne. 

1  Crecy  (Kray' see'). 

2  He  landed  near  Cherbourg,  opposite  the  Isle  of  Wight,  crossed  the  Seine  not 
very  far  below  Paris,  —  the  bridges  having  been  destroyed  up  to  that  point,  —  and 
then  marched  for  Calais  (Kal'  ay')  by  way  of  Crecy  (or  Cressy),  a  village  near  the 
mouth  of  the  river  Somme.  See  Map  No.  io,  facing  page  130. 


128  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1327-1377 


pressed  by  the  enemy,  became  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  young 
Prince  Edward.  He  sent  to  the  King,  asking  reinforcements. 

“  Is  my  son  killed?”  asked  the  King.  “  No,  sire,  please  God  !  ” 
“  Is  he  wounded  ?  ”  “  No,  sire.”  “  Is  he  thrown  to  the  ground  ?  ” 
“  No,  sire  ;  but  he  is  in  great  danger.”  “Then,”  said  the  King, 
“I  shall  send  no  aid.  Let  the  boy  win  his  spurs1 ;  for  I  wish,  if 
God  so  order  it,  that  the  honor  of  the  victory  shall  be  his.”  The 
father’s  wish  was  gratified.  From  that  time  the  “Black  Prince,” 
as  the  French  called  him,  from  the  color  of  his  armor,  became  a 
name  renowned  throughout  Europe. 

The  battle,  however,  was  gained,  not  by  his  bravery,  or  that 
of  the  nobles  who  supported  him,  but  by  the  sturdy  English 
yeomen.  They  shot  their  keen  white  arrows  so  thick  and  fast, 
and  with  such  deadly  aim,  that  a  writer  who  was  present  on  the 
field  compared  them  to  a  shower  of  snow.  It  was  that  fatal 
snow-storm  which  won  the  day.2 

291.  Use  of  Cannon;  Chivalry  (1346).  —  At  Crecy  (§290) 
small  cannon  appear  to  have  been  used  for  the  first  time  in  field 
warfare,  though  gunpowder  was  probably  known  to  the  English 
monk,  Roger  Bacon  (§  260),  a  hundred  years  before.  The  object 

1  Spurs  were  the  especial  badge  of  knighthood.  It  was  expected  of  every  one 
who  attained  that  honor  that  he  should  do  some  deed  of  valor;  this  was  called 
“  winning  his  spurs.” 

2  The  English  yeomen,  or  country  people,  excelled  in  the  use  of  the  long-bow. 
They  probably  learned  its  value  from  their  Norman  conquerors,  who  employed  it 
with  great  effect  at  the  battle  of  Hastings.  Writing  at  a  much  later  period,  Bishop 
Latimer  said :  “  In  my  tyme  my  poore  father  w'as  as  diligent  to  teach  me  to  shote 
as  to  learne  anye  other  thynge.  .  .  .  He  taught  me  how  to  drawe,  how  to  laye  my 
bodye  in  my  bowe,  and  not  to  drawe  wyth  strength  of  armes  as  other  nacions  do, 
but  with  strength  of  the  bodye.  1  had  bowes  boughte  me  accordyng  to  my  age  and 
strength ;  as  I  encreased  in  them,  so  my  bowes  were  made  bigger,  and  bigger,  for 
men  shal  neuer  shot  well,  excepte  they  be  broughte  up  in  it.”  The  advantage  of  this 
weapon  over  the  steel  cross-bow  (used  by  the  Genoese)  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  could 
be  discharged  much  more  rapidly ;  the  latter  being  a  cumbrous  affair,  which  had  to 
be  wound  up  with  a  crank  for  each  shot.  Hence  the  English  long-bow  was  to  that 
age  what  the  revolver  is  to  ours.  It  sent  an  arrow  with  such  force  that  only  the  best 
armor  could  withstand  it.  The  French  peasantry  at  that  period  had  no  skill  with 
this  weapon ;  and  about  the  only  part  they  took  in  a  battle  was  to  stab  horses  and 
despatch  wounded  men. 

Scott,  in  the  Archery  Contest  in  Ivanhoe  (Chapter  XIII)  has  given  an  excellent 
picture  of  the  English  bowman. 


*• 


THE  BATTLE  OF  CRECY,  1346 


327-1377]  TIIE  angevins,  or  plantagenets 


129 


of  the  cannon  was  to  frighten  and  annoy  the  horses  of  the  French 
cavalry.  They  were  laughed  at  as  ingenious  toys ;  but  in  the 
course  of  the  next  two  centuries  those  toys  revolutionized  warfare 
and  made  the  steel-clad  knight  little  more  than  a  tradition  and  a 
name  (§322). 

In  its  day,  however,  knighthood  did  the  world  good  service. 
Chivalry  aimed  to  make  the  profession  of  arms  a  noble  instead  of 
a  brutal  calling.  It  gave  it  somewhat  of  a  religious  character. 

It  taught  the  warrior  the  worth  of  honor,  truthfulness,  and 
courtesy,  as  well  as  valor, — qualities  which  still  survive  in  the  best 
type  of  the  modern  gentleman.  We  owe,  therefore,  no  small  debt 
to  that  military  brotherhood  of  the  past,  and  may  join  the  English 
poet  in  his  epitaph  on  the  order  :  — 

The  Knights  are  dust, 

Their  good  swords  rust ; 

Their  souls  are  with  the  saints,  we  trust.”1 

292.  Edward  III  takes  Calais  (1347).  —  Edward  now  marched 
against  Calais.2  He  was  particularly  anxious  to  take  the  place  : 
first,  because  it  was  a  favorite  resort  of  desperate  pirates  ;  secondly, 
because  such  a  fortified  port  on  the  Strait  of  Dover,  within  sight 
of  the  chalk  cliffs  of  England,  would  give  him  at  all  times  “an 
open  doorway  into  France.” 

After  besieging  it  for  nearly  a  year,  the  garrison  was  starved 
into  submission  and  prepared  to  open  the  gates.  Edward  was  so 
exasperated  with  the  stubborn  resistance  the  town  had  made,  that 
he  resolved  to  put  the  entire  population  to  the  sword.  But  at 
last  he  consented  to  spare  them,  on  condition  that  six  of  the  chief 
men  should  give  themselves  up  to  be  hanged. 

A  meeting  was  called,  and  St.  Pierre,3  the  wealthiest  citizen  of 
the  place,  volunteered,  with  five  others,  to  go  forth  and  die. 

Bareheaded,  barefooted,  with  halters  round  their  necks,  they 
silently  went  out,  carrying  the  keys  of  the  city.  When  they 
appeared  before  the  English  King,  he  ordered  the  executioner, 
who  was  standing  by,  to  seize  them  and  carry  out  the  sentence 

1  Coleridge;  see  Scott,  The  Knight’s  Tomb.  2  Calais  (Kal'ay'). 

3  St.  Pierre  (San  Pee' ere'). 


130  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1327-1377 


forthwith.  But  Queen  Philippa,  who  had  accompanied  her  hus¬ 
band,  now  fell  on  her  knees  before  him,  and  with  tears  begged 
that  they  might  be  forgiven.  For  a  long  time  Edward  was  inex¬ 
orable,  but  finally,  unable  to  resist  her  entreaties,  he  granted  her 
request,  and  the  men  who  had  dared  to  face  death  for  others 
found  life  both  for  themselves  and  their  fellow-citizens.1 

293.  Victory  of  Poitiers2  (1356).  —  After  a  long  truce,  war 
again  broke  out.  Philip  VI  had  died,  and  his  son,  John  II,  now 
sat  on  the  French  throne.  Edward,  during  this  campaign,  ravaged 
Northern  France.  The  next  year  his  son,  the  Black  Prince 
(§  290),  marched  from  Bordeaux3  into  the  heart  of  the  country. 

Reaching  Poitiers 4  with  a  force  of  ten  thousand  men,  he  found 
himself  nearly  surrounded  by  a  French  army  of  sixty  thousand. 
He  so  placed  his  troops  amidst  the  narrow  lanes  and  vineyards, 
that  the  enemy  could  not  attack  him  with  their  full  strength. 
Again  the  English  archers  gained  the  day  (§  290),  and  King  John 
himself  was  taken  prisoner  and  carried  in  triumph  to  England. 

294.  Peace  of  Bretigny''  (1360).  — The  victory  of  Poitiers  was 
followed  by  another  truce ;  then  war  began  again.  Edward  in¬ 
tended  besieging  Paris,  but  was  forced  to  retire  to  obtain  provis¬ 
ions  for  his  troops.  Negotiations  were  now  opened  by  the  French. 
While  they  were  going  on,  a  terrible  thunder-storm  destroyed 
great  numbers  of  men  and  horses  in  Edward’s  camp. 

Edward,  believing  it  a  sign  of  the  displeasure  of  Heaven  against 
his  expedition,  fell  on  his  knees,  and  within  sight  of  the  Cathedral 
of  Chartres  6  vowed  to  make  peace.  A  treaty  was  accordingly- 
signed  at  Bretigny  near  by.  By  it,  Edward  renounced  all  claim  to 
Normandy  and  the  French  crown.7  France,  on  the  other  hand, 
acknowledged  the  right  of  England,  in  full  sovereignty,  to  the 
country  south  of  the  Loire,  together  with  Calais,  and  agreed  to  pay 
an  enormous  ransom  in  gold  for  the  restoration  of  King  John. 

1  See  Froissart's  Chronicles.  -  Poitiers  (Pwa-te-a',  nearly  like  Pwi-te-a'). 

8  Bordeaux  (Bor' doe'). 

4  Poitiers,  near  a  southern  branch  of  the  Loire.  See  Map  No.  10,  facing  page  130. 

5  Bretigny  ( B ray-tee n-yee') .  e  Chartres  (Shartr). 

7  But  the  title  of  “  King  of  France”  was  retained  by  English  sovereigns  down  to 
a  late  period  of  the  reign  of  George  III. 


1327-1377]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS  1 3 1 

295.  Effects  of  the  French  Wars  in  England.  — The  great  gain 
to  England  from  these  wars  was  not  in  the  territory  conquered, 
but  in  the  new  feeling  of  unity  they  aroused  among  all  classes. 
The  memory  of  the  brave  deeds  achieved  in  those  fierce  contests 
on  a  foreign  soil  never  faded  out.  The  glory  of  the  Black  Prince 
(§  293),  whose  rusty  helmet  and  dented  shield  still  hang  above  his 
tomb  in  Canterbury  Cathedral,1  became  one  with  the  glory  of  the 
plain  bowmen,  whose  names  are  found  only  in  country  churchyards. 

Henceforth,  whatever  lingering  feeling  of  jealousy  and  hatred 
had  remained  in  England,  between  the  Norman  and  the  English¬ 
man  (§  244),  now  gradually  melted  away.  An  honest,  patriotic 
pride  made  both  feel  that  at  last  they  had  become  a  united  and 
homogeneous  people. 

The  second  effect  of  the  wars  was  political.  In  order  to  carry 
them  on,  the  King  had  to  apply  constantly  to  Parliament  for 
money.  Each  time  that  body  granted  a  supply,  they  insisted  on 
some  reform  which  increased  their  strength,  and  brought  the 
Crown  more  and  more  under  the  influence  of  the  nation.  (See 
Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  Appendix,  page  xii,  §  13.) 

Thus  it  came  to  be  clearly  understood,  that  though  the  King 
held  the  sword,  the  people  held  the  purse  ;  and  that  the  ruler 
who  made  the  greatest  concessions  got  the  largest  grants. 

It  was  also  in  this  reign  that  the  House  of  Commons,  which 
now  sat  as  a  separate  body,  and  not,  as  at  first,  with  the  Lords,2 
obtained  the  important  power  of  impeaching,  or  bringing  to  trial 
before  the  Upper  House,  any  of  the  King’s  ministers  or  council 
guilty  of  misgovernment.  (See  Summary  of  Constitutional  His¬ 
tory  in  Appendix,  page  xii,  §  13.) 

About  this  time,  also,  statutes  were  passed  which  forbade 
appeals  from  the  King’s  courts  of  justice  to  that  of  the  Pope,3 

1  These  are  probably  the  oldest  accoutrements  of  the  kind  existing  in  Great 
Britain.  The  shield  is  of  embossed  leather  stretched  over  a  wooden  frame,  and  is 
almost  as  hard  as  metal ;  the  helmet  is  of  iron.  See  Stothard’s  Monumental  Effigies. 

2  The  knights  of  the  shire,  or  country  gentlemen,  now  took  their  seats  with  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  as  they  were  men  of  property  and  influence,  this  greatly 
increased  the  power  of  the  representatives  of  the  people  in  Parliament. 

8  First  Statute  of  Provisors  (1351)  and  of  Praemunire  (1353).  See  §  317. 


132  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1327-1377 


who  was  then  a  Frenchman,  and  was  believed  to  be  under  French 
political  influence. 

All  foreign  church  officials  were  prohibited  from  taking  money 
from  the  English  Church,  or  interfering  in  any  way  with  its 
management.1 

296.  The  Black  Death  (1349). — Shortly  after  the  first  cam¬ 
paign  in  France,  a  frightful  pestilence  broke  out  in  London,  which 
swept  over  the  country,  destroying  upwards  of  half  the  popula¬ 
tion.  The  disease,  which  was  known  as  the  Black  Death,2  had 
already  traversed  Europe,  where  it  had  proved  equally  fatal. 

“  How  many  amiable  young  persons,”  said  an  Italian  writer  of 
that  period,3  “  breakfasted  with  their  friends  in  the  morning,  who, 
when  evening  came,  supped  with  their  ancestors  !  ”  In  Bristol 
and  some  other  English  cities,  the  mortality  was  so  great  that  the 
living  were  hardly  able  to  bury  the  dead  ;  so  that  all  business, 
and  for  a  time  even  war,  came  to  a  standstill. 

297.  Effect  of  the  Plague  on  Labor,  1349.  —  After  the  pesti¬ 
lence  had  subsided,  it  was  impossible  to  find  laborers  enough  to 
till  the  soil  and  shear  the  sheep.  Those  who  were  free  now 
demanded  higher  wages,  while  the  villeins,  or  serfs  (§  160),  and 
slaves  left  their  masters,  and  roamed  about  the  country  asking 
pay  for  their  work,  like  freemen. 

It  was  a  general  agricultural  strike,  which  lasted  over  thirty 
years.  It  marks  the  beginning  of  that  contest  between  capital 
and  labor  which  had  such  an  important  influence  in  the  next 
reign,  and  which,  after  a  lapse  of  more  than  five  hundred  years, 
is  not  yet  satisfactorily  adjusted. 

Parliament  endeavored  to  restore  order.  It  passed  laws  for¬ 
bidding  any  freeman  to  ask  more  for  a  day’s  work  than  before 
the  plague.  It  gave  the  master  the  right  to  punish  a  serf  who 
persisted  in  running  away,  by  branding  him  on  the  forehead  with 
the  letter  “  F,”  for  fugitive. 

But  legislation  was  all  in  vain  ;  the  movement  had  begun,  and 


1  Statute  of  Provisors  (1351),  and  see  §  317. 

2  Black  Death  :  so  called  from  the  black  spots  it  produced  on  the  skin. 

3  Boccaccio’s  Decameron. 


THE  TOMB  OF  THE  BLACK  PRINCE  IN  CANTERBURY  CATHEDRAL 


1 327— 1 377]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


133 


parliamentary  statutes  could  no  more  stop  it  than  they  could  stop 
the  ocean  tide.  It  continued  to  go  on  until  it  reached  its  climax 
in  the  peasant  insurrection  led  by  Wat  Tyler  under  Edward’s 
successor,  Richard  II  (§  303). 

298.  Beginning  of  English  Literature,  1369-1377.  —  During 


Edward’s  reign  the  first  work  in  English  prose  may  have  been 
written.  It  was  a  volume  of  travels  by  Sir  John  Mandeville,  who 
had  journeyed  in  the  East  for  over  thirty  years.  On  his  return 
he  wrote  an  account  of  what  he  had  heard  and  seen,  first  in  Latin, 
that  the  learned  might  read  it ;  next  in  French,  that  the  nobles 
might  read  it ;  and  lastly  he,  or  some  unknown  person,  translated 
it  into  English  for  the  common  people.  He  dedicated  the  work 
to  the  King. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  and  wonderful  thing  in  it  was  the 
statement  of  his  belief  that  the  world  is  a  globe,  and  that  a  ship 
may  sail  round  it  “above  and  beneath,”  —  an  assertion  which 
probably  seemed  to  many  who  read  it  then  as  less  credible  than 
any  of  the  marvellous  stories  in  which  his  book  abounds. 

William  Langland  was  writing  rude  verses  (1369),  about  his 
“  vision  of  Piers  the  Plowman,”  contrasting  “  the  wealth  and 
woe  ”  of  the  world,  and  so  helping  forward  that  democratic  out¬ 
break  which  was  soon  to  take  place  among  those  who  knew  the 
woe  and  wanted  the  wealth.  John  Wycliffe,  a  lecturer  at  Oxford, 
attacked  the  rich  and  indolent  churchmen  in  a  series  of  tracts  and 
sermons,  while  Chaucer,  who  had  fought  on  the  fields  of  France, 
was  preparing  to  bring  forth  the  first  great  poem  in  our  language.1 

299.  The  “  Good  Parliament  ”  (1376) ;  Edward’s  Death.  —  The 
“Good  Parliament”  (1376)  attempted  to  carry  through  impor¬ 
tant  reforms.  It  impeached  (for  the  first  time  in  English  history)2 
certain  prominent  men  for  fraud.  But  in  the  end  its  work  failed 
for  want  of  a  leader.  The  King’s  last  days  were  far  from  happy. 
His  son,  the  Black  Prince  (§  290),  had  died,  and  Edward  fell 
entirely  into  the  hands  of  selfish  favorites  and  ambitious  schemers 
like  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster.  Perhaps  the  worst  one  of 

1  Wycliffe  and  Chaucer  will  appear  more  prominently  in  the  next  reign. 

2  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xii,  §  13. 


134  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1327-1377 


this  corrupt  “  ring  ”  was  a  woman  named  Alice  Perrers,  who,  after 
Queen  Philippa  was  no  more,  got  almost  absolute  control  of  the 
King.  She  stayed  with  him  until  his  last  sickness.  When  his 
eyes  began  to  glaze  in  death,  she  plucked  the  rings  from  his 
unresisting  hands,  and  fled  from  the  palace. 

300.  Summary.  —  During  this  reign  the  following  events 
deserve  especial  notice  :  — 

1.  The  acknowledgment  of  the  independence  of  Scotland. 

2.  The  establishment  of  the  manufacture  of  fine  woollens  in 
England. 

3.  The  beginning  of  the  Hundred  Years’  War,  with  the  victories 
of  Crecy,  and  Poitiers,  the  Peace  of  Bre'tigny,  and  their  social  and 
political  results  in  England. 

4.  The  Black  Death  and  its  results  on  labor. 

5.  The  partial  emancipation  of  the  English  Church  from  the 
power  of  Rome. 

6.  The  rise  of  modern  literature,  represented  by  the  works  of 
Mandeville,  Langland,  and  the  early  writings  of  Wycliffe  and 
Chaucer. 


RICHARD  II  — 1377-1399 


301.  England  at  Richard’s  Accession. — The  death  of  the  1 
Black  Prince  (§§  290,  299)  left  his  son  Richard  heir  to  the 
crown.  As  he  was  but  eleven  years  old,  Parliament  provided  ! 
that  the  government  during  his  minority  should  be  carried  on 
by  a  council;  but  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster  (§  299), 
speedily  got  the  control  of  affairs.1 

He  was  an  unprincipled  man,  who  wasted  the  nation’s  money, 
opposed  reform,  and  was  especially  hated  by  the  laboring  classes.  I 
The  times  were  critical.  War  had  again  broken  out  with  both 
Scotland  and  France,  the  French  fleet  was  raiding  the  English 
coast,  the  national  treasury  had  no  money  to  pay  its  troops,  and 
the  government  debt  was  rapidly  accumulating. 

1  John  of  Gaunt  (a  corruption  of  Ghent,  his  birthplace):  he  was  a  younger  brother  1 
of  Edward,  the  Black  Prince. 


1377— 1 399]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


135 


302.  The  New  Tax ;  Tyler  and  Ball  (1381).  —  To  raise  money, 
it  was  resolved  to  levy  a  new  form  of  tax,  —  a  poll  or  head  tax,  — 
which  had  first  been  tried  on  a  small  scale  during  the  last  year  of 
the  previous  reign.  The  attempt  had  been  made  to  assess  it  on 
all  classes,  from  laborers  to  lords. 

This  imposition  was  now  renewed  in  a  much  more  oppressive 
form.  Not  only  every  laborer,  but  every  member  of  a  laborer’s 
family  above  the  age  of  fifteen,  was  required  to  pay  what  would 
be  equal  to  the  wages  of  an  able-bodied  man  for  at  least  several 
days’  work.1 

We  have  already  seen  that,  owing  to  the  ravages  of  the  Black 
Death,  and  the  strikes  which  followed,  the  country  was  on  the 
verge  of  revolt  (§§  296,  297).  This  new  tax  was  the  spark  that 
caused  the  explosion.  The  money  was  roughly  demanded  in 
every  poor  man’s  cottage,  and  its  collection  caused  the  greatest 
distress.  In  attempting  to  enforce  payment,  a  brutal  collector 
shamefully  insulted  the  young  daughter  of  a  workman  named  Wat 
Tyler.  The  indignant  father,  hearing  the  girl’s  cry  for  help, 
snatched  up  a  hammer,  and  rushing  in,  struck  the  ruffian  dead 
on  the  spot. 

Tyler  then  collected  a  multitude  of  discontented  serfs2  and  free 
laborers  on  Blackheath  Common,  near  London,  with  the  determi¬ 
nation  of  attacking  the  city  and  overthrowing  the  Government. 

John  Ball,  a  fanatical  priest,  harangued  the  gathering,  now  sixty 
thousand  strong,  using  by  way  of  a  text  lines  which  were  at  that 
time  familiar  to  every  workingman  :  — 

“  When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 

Who  was  then  the  gentleman  ?  ”  * 

“Good  people,”  he  cried,  “things  will  never  go  well  in  Eng¬ 
land  so  long  as  goods  be  not  in  common,  and  so  long  as  there  be 
villeins  (§  160)  and  gentlemen.  They  call  us  slaves,  and  beat  us 

1  The  tax  on  laborers  and  their  families  varied  from  four  to  twelve  pence  each, 
the  assessor  having  instructions  to  collect  the  latter  sum,  if  possible.  The  wages  of 
a  day-laborer  were  then  about  a  penny,  so  that  the  smallest  tax  for  a  family  of  three 
would  represent  the  entire  pay  for  nearly  a  fortnight’s  labor.  See  Pearson’s  England 
in  the  Fourteenth  Century.  2  Serfs  or  villeins.  See  §  160. 


136  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1377-1399 


if  we  are  slow  to  do  their  bidding,  but  God  has  now  given  us  the 
day  to  shake  off  our  bondage.” 

303.  The  Great  Outbreak ;  Violence  in  London  (1381).  — 

Twenty  years  before  there  had  been  similar  outbreaks  in  Flan¬ 
ders  and  in  France.  This,  therefore,  was  not  an  isolated  instance 
of  insurrection,  but  rather  part  of  a  general  uprising.  The 
rebellion  begun  by  Tyler  and  Ball  (§  302)  spread  through  the 
southern  and  eastern  counties  of  England,  taking  different  forms 
in  different  districts.  It  was  violent  in  St.  Albans,  where  the 
serfs  rose  against  the  exactions  of  the  abbot,  but  it  reached 
its  greatest  height  in  London. 

For  three  weeks  the  mob  held  possession  of  the  capital.  They 
pillaged  and  then  burned  John  of  Gaunt’s  palace  (§§  299,  301). 
They  seized  and  beheaded  the  Lord  Chancellor  and  the  chief 
collector  of  the  odious  poll-tax  (§  302).  They  destroyed  all  the 
law  papers  they  could  lay  hands  on,  and  ended  by  murdering  a 
number  of  lawyers ;  for  the  rioters  believed  that  the  members  of 
that  profession  spent  their  time  forging  the  chains  which  held  the 
laboring  class  in  subjection. 

304.  Demands  of  the  Rebels;  End  of  the  Rebellion.  —  The 

insurrectionists  demanded  of  the  King  that  villeinage  (§  160) 
should  be  abolished,  and  that  the  rent  of  agricultural  lands  should 
be  fixed  by  Parliament  at  a  uniform  rate  in  money.  They  also 
insisted  that  trade  should  be  free,  and  that  a  general  uncondi¬ 
tional  pardon  should  be  granted  to  all  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
rebellion. 

Richard  promised  redress  ;  but  while  negotiations  were  going 
on,  Walworth,  'mayor  of  London,  struck  down  Tyler  with  his 
dagger,  and  with  his  death  the  whole  movement  collapsed  almost 
as  suddenly  as  it  arose.  Parliament  now  began  a  series  of  merci¬ 
less  executions,  and  refused  to  consider  any  of  the  claims  which 
Richard  had  shown  a  disposition  to  listen  to.  In  their  punish¬ 
ment  of  the  rebels  the  House  of  Commons  vied  with  the  Lords 
in  severity,  few  showing  any  sympathy  with  the  efforts  of  the 
peasants  to  obtain  their  freedom  from  feudal  bondage. 

The  uprising,  however,  was  not  in  vain,  for  by  it  the  old 


1377-1399]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS  1 37 

restrictions  were  in  some  degree  loosened,  so  that  in  the  course 
of  the  next  century  and  a  half,  villeinage  (§  160)  was  gradually 
abolished,  and  the  English  laborer  acquired  that  greatest  yet 
most  perilous  of  all  rights,  the  complete  ownership  of  himself.1 

So  long  as  he  was  a  serf,  the  peasant  could  claim  assistance 
from  his  master  in  sickness  and  old  age  ;  in  attaining  independ¬ 
ence  he  had  to  risk  the  danger  of  pauperism,  which  began  with 
it,  —  this  possibility  being  part  of  the  price  which  man  must 
everywhere  pay  for  the  inestimable  privilege  of  freedom. 

305.  The  New  Movement  in  Literature  (1390?). — The  same 
spirit  which  demanded  emancipation  on  the  part  of  the  working 
classes  showed  itself  in  literature.  We  have  already  seen  (§  298) 
how,  in  the  previous  reign,  Langland,  in  his  poem  of  “  Piers 
Plowman,”  gave  bold  utterance  to  the  growing  discontent  of 
the  times  in  his  declaration  that  the  rich  and  great  destroyed 
the  poor. 

In  a  different  spirit,  Chaucer,  “  the  morning-star  of  English 
song,”  now  began  (1390?)  to  write  his  “Canterbury  Tales,”  a 
series  of  stories  in  verse,  supposed  to  be  told  by  a  merry  band 
of  pilgrims  on  their  way  from  the  Tabard-Inn,  Southwark,2  to  the 
shrine  of  St.  Thomas  Becket  in  Canterbury  (§  221). 

There  is  little  of  Langland’s  complaint  in  Chaucer,  for  he  was 
generally  a  favorite  at  court,  seeing  mainly  the  bright  side  of 
life,  and  sure  of  his  yearly  allowance  of  money  and  daily  pitcher 
of  wine  from  the  royal  bounty.  Yet,  with  all  his  mirth,  there  is 
a  vein  of  playful  satire  in  his  description  of  men  and  things. 
His  pictures  of  jolly  monks  and  easy-going  churchmen,  with  his 
lines  addressed  to  his  purse  as  his  “  saviour,  as  down  in  this 
world  here,”  show  that  he  saw  beneath  the  surface  of  things. 
He  too  was  thinking,  at  least  at  times,  of  the  manifold  evils  of 
poverty  and  of  that  danger  springing  from  religious  indifference 
which  poor  Langland  had  taken  so  much  to  heart. 


1  In  Scotland  villeinage  lasted  much  longer,  and  so  late  as  1 774,  in  the  reign  of 
George  III,  men  working  in  coal  and  salt  mines  were  held  in  a  species  of  slavery, 
which  was  finally  abolished  the  following  year. 

2  Southwark.  See  note  to  §  153. 


138  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1377-1399 


306.  Wycliffe ;  the  First  English  Bible,  1378.  —  But  the 

real  reformer  of  that  day  was  John  Wyqliffe,  rector  of  Lutter¬ 
worth  in  Leicestershire  and  lecturer  at  Oxford.  He  boldly 
attacked  the  religious  and  the  political  corruption  of  the  age. 
The  Mendicant  Friars,  who  had  once  done  such  good  work 
(§  260),  had  now  grown  too  rich  and  lazy  to  be  of  further  use. 

Wycliffe  organized  a  new  band  of  brothers,  known  as  “  Poor 
Priests,”  to  take  up  and  push  forward  the  reforms  the  friars  had 
dropped.  Clothed  in  red  sackcloth  cloaks,  barefooted,  with  staff 
in  hand,  they  went  about  from  town  to  town  1  preaching  “  God’s 
law,”  and  demanding  that  Church  and  State  bring  themselves 
into  harmony  with  it. 

The  only  Bible  then  in  use  was  the  Latin  version.  The  people 
could  not  read  a  line  of  it,  and  many  priests  were  almost  as 
ignorant  of  its  contents.  To  carry  on  the  revival  which  he  had 
begun,  Wycliffe  now  translated  the  Scriptures  into  English,  1378. 
The  work  was  copied  and  circulated  by  the  “  Poor  Priests.” 

But  the  cost  of  such  a  book  in  manuscript  —  for  the  printing- 
press  had  not  yet  come  into  existence  —  was  so  great  that  only 
the  rich  could  buy  the  complete  volume.  Many,  however,  who 
had  no  money  would  give  a  load  of  farm  produce  for  a  few 
favorite  chapters. 

In  this  way  Wycliffe’s  translation  was  spread  throughout  the 
country  among  all  classes.2  Later,  when  persecution  began,  men 
hid  these  precious  copies  and  read  them  with  locked  doors  at 
night,  or  met  in  the  forests  to  hear  them  expounded  by  preachers 
who  went  about  at  the  peril  of  their  lives.  These  things  led 
Wycliffe’s  enemies  to  complain  “  that  common  men  and  women 
who  could  read  were  better  acquainted  with  the  Scriptures  than 
the  most  learned  and  intelligent  of  the  clergy.” 

1  Compare  Chaucer’s 

“  A  good  man  ther  was  of  religioun, 

That  was  a  poure  persone  [parson]  of  a  town.” 

Prologue  to  the  Canterbury  Tales  (479). 

2  The  great  number  of  copies  sent  out  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  after  the  lapse 
of  five  hundred  years,  one  hundred  and  sixty-five,  more  or  less  complete,  are  still 
preserved  in  England. 


1 377-  1399]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


139 


307.  The  Lollards;  Wycliffe’s  Remains  burned. — The  fol¬ 
lowers  of  Wycliffe  eventually  became  known  as  Lollards,  or  Psalm- 
singers.1  From  having  been  religious  reformers  denouncing  the 
wealth  and  greed  of  a  corrupt  Church,  they  would  seem,  at  least 
in  many  cases,  to  have  degenerated  into  socialists  or  communists. 
They  demanded,  like  John  Ball  (§  302),  —  who  may  have  been 
one  of  their  number,  —  that  all  property  should  be  equally 
divided,  and  that  all  rank  should  be  abolished. 

This  fact  should  be  borne  in  mind  with  reference  to  the  sub¬ 
sequent  efforts  made  by  the  Government  to  suppress  the  move¬ 
ment.  In  the  eyes  of  the  Church,  the  Lollards  were  heretics ;  in 
the  judgment  of  many  moderate  men,  they  were  destructionists 
and  anarchists,  as  unreasonable  and  as  dangerous  as  the  “  dyna¬ 
miters  ”  of  to-day. 

More  than  forty  years  after  Wycliffe’s  death  (1384),  a  decree 
of  the  church  council  of  Constance  2  ordered  the  reformer’s  body 
to  be  dug  up  and  burned  (1428).  But  his  influence  had  not 
only  permeated  England,  but  had  passed  to  the  continent,  and 
was  preparing  the  way  for  that  greater  movement  which  Luther 
was  to  inaugurate  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

Tradition  says  that  the  ashes  of  his  corpse  were  thrown  into  a 
brook  flowing  near  the  parsonage  of  Lutterworth,  the  object  being 
to  utterly  destroy  and  obliterate  the  remains  of  the  arch-heretic. 
Fuller  says:  “This  brook  did  convey  his  ashes  into  the  Avon, 
Avon  into  Severn,  Severn  into  the  narrow  sea,  and  that  into  the 
wide  ocean.  And  so  the  ashes  of  Wycliffe  are  the  emblem  of 
his  doctrine,  which  is  now  dispersed  all  the  world  over.”  3 

308.  Richard’s  Misgovernment ;  the  “Merciless  Parliament.” 
—  Richard’s  reign  was  unpopular  with  all  classes.  The  people 

1  Or  “  Babblers.” 

2  Constance,  Southern  Germany.  This  Council  (1415)  sentenced  John  Huss  and 
Jerome  of  Prague,  both  of  whom  may  be  considered  Wycliffites,  to  the  stake. 

8  Fuller’s  Church  History  of  Britain.  Compare  also  Wordsworth’s  Sonnet  to 
Wycliffe,  and  the  lines,  attributed  to  an  unknown  writer  of  Wycliffe’s  time:  — 

“  The  Avon  to  the  Severn  runs, 

The  Severn  to  the  sea; 

And  Wycliffe’s  dust  shall  spread  abroad, 

Wide  as  the  waters  be.” 


140  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1377-1399 


hated  him  for  his  extravagance  ;  the  clergy,  for  his  failing  to  put 
down  the  Wycliffites  (§§  306,  307),  with  the  doctrines  of  whose 
founder  he  was  believed  to  sympathize  ;  while  the  nobles  disliked 
his  injustice  and  favoritism. 

In  the  “  Merciless  Parliament  ”  (1388)  the  “  Lords  Appellant  ”  1 
put  to  death  such  of  his  ministers  or  chief  counsellors  as  they 
could  lay  hands  on.  Later,  that  body  attempted  some  political 
reforms,  which  were  partially  successful.  But  the  King  soon 
regained  his  power,  and  took  summary  vengeance  (1397)  on 
the  “  Lords  Appellant.”  Two  influential  men  were  left,  Thomas 
Mowbray,  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  Henry  Bolingbroke,  Duke  of 
Hereford,  whom  he  had  found  no  opportunity  to  punish.  After 
a  time  they  openly  quarrelled,  and  accused  each  other  of  treason. 

A  challenge  passed  between  them,  and  they  were  to  fight  the 
matter  out  in  the  King’s  presence  ;  but  when  the  day  arrived, 
and  they  came  ready  for  the  combat,  the  King  bailished  both 
from  England  (1398).  Shortly  after  they  had  left  the  country 
Bolingbroke’s  father,  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  died. 
Contrary  to  all  law,  Richard  now  seized  and  appropriated  the 
estate,  which  belonged  by  right  to  the  banished  nobleman. 

309.  Richard  deposed  and  murdered  (1399). — When  Boling¬ 
broke,  now  by  his  father’s  death  Duke  of  Lancaster,  heard  of  the 
outrage,  he  raised  a  small  force  and  returned  to  England,  demand¬ 
ing  the  restitution  of  his  lands. 

Finding  that  the  powerful  family  of  the  Percies  were  willing  to 
aid  him,  and  that  many  of  the  common  people  desired  a  change 
of  government,  the  duke  boldly  claimed  the  crown,  on  the  ground 
that  Richard  had  forfeited  it  by  his  tyranny,  and  that  he  stood 
next  in  succession  through  his  descent  from  Henry  III.  But  in 
reality  Henry  Bolingbroke  had  no  claim  save  that  given  by  right 
of  conquest,  since  the  boy  Edmund  Mortimer  held  the  direct  title 
to  the  crown.2 

The  King  now  fell  into  Henry’s  hands,  and  events  moved  rap¬ 
idly  to  a  crisis.  Richard  had  rebuilt  Westminster  Hall  (§  206). 

1  The  “  Lords  Appellant  ”  were  the  noblemen  who  “  appealed  ”  or  accused  Rich¬ 
ard’s  counsellors  of  treason.  2  See  genealogical  table,  under  No.  4,  on  page  141. 


r 377— 1 399]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


141 

The  first  Parliament  which  assembled  there  met  to  depose  him,  and 
to  give  his  throne  to  the  victorious  Duke  of  Lancaster.  Shake¬ 
speare  represents  the  fallen  monarch  saying  in  his  humiliation  :  — 

“  With  mine  own  tears  I  wash  away  my  balm,1 
With  mine  own  hand  I  give  away  my  crown.” 

After  his  deposition  Richard  was  confined  in  Pontefract  Castle, 
Yorkshire,  where  he  found,  like  his  unfortunate  ancestor,  Edward  1 1 
(§  285),  “  that  in  the  case  of  princes  there  is  but  a  step  from  the 
prison  to  the  grave.”  His  death  did  not  take  place,  however,  until 
after  Henry’s  accession.2 

310.  Summary.  —  Richard  IPs  reign  comprised  :  — 

1.  The  peasant  revolt  under  Wat  Tyler,  which  led  eventually 
to  the  emancipation  of  the  villeins,  or  serfs. 

2.  Wycliffe’s  reformation  movement;  his  translation  of  the 
Latin  Bible,  with  the  rise  of  the  Lollards. 

3.  The  publication  of  Chaucer’s  “  Canterbury  Tales,”  the  first 
great  English  poem. 

4.  The  deposition  of  the  King,  and  the  transfer  of  the  crown 
by  Parliament  to  Henry,  Duke  of  Lancaster. 

1  Richard  II,  Act  IV,  Scene  i.  The  balm  was  the  sacred  oil  used  in  anointing  the 
King  at  his  coronation. 

-  Henry  of  Lancaster  was  the  son  of  John  of  Gaunt,  who  was  the  fourth  son  of 
Edward  III;  but  there  were  descendants  of  that  king’s  third  son  (Lionel,  Duke  of 
Clarence)  living,  who,  of  course,  had  a  prior  claim,  as  the  following  table  shows. 

Edward  HI 

,  [Direct  descendant  of  Henry  III] 

1  2  3  |  4  5 

I - 1  I  i 

Edward,  the  William,  d.  in  Lionel,  Duke  John  of  Gaunt, 

Black  Prince  childhood  of  Clarence  Duke  of  Lancaster 

I  I  I 

Richard  II  Philippa,  m.  Henry  Bolingbroke. 

Edmund  Morti-  Duke  of  Lancaster, 
mer  afterward 

|  Henry  IV 

Roger  Mortimer, 

<b  "398-1399 

,1 

Edmund  Mortimer 
{heir  presumptive  to 
the  crown  after 
Richard  //) 

This  disregard  of  the  strict  order  of  succession  furnished  a  pretext  for  the  Civil 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  which  broke  out  sixty  years  later. 


Edmund, 
Duke  of 
York 


142  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1154-1399 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  ANGEVIN,  OR  PLANTAGENET, 
PERIOD  (1154-1399) 

I.  GOVERNMENT. -  II.  RELIGION. - III.  MILITARY  AFFAIRS. - 

IV. - LITERATURE,  LEARNING,  AND  ART.  - V.  GENERAL  IN¬ 
DUSTRY  AND  COMMERCE. - VI.  MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS, 

AND  CUSTOMS. 

GOVERNMENT 

31 1.  Judicial  Reforms.  —  In  1164  Henry  II  undertook,  by  a  series 
of  statutes  called  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  to  bring  the  Church 
under  the  common  law  of  the  land,  but  was  only  temporarily  suc¬ 
cessful.  By  subsequent  statutes  he  reorganized  the  administration 
of  justice,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  trial  by  jury. 

312.  Town  Charters.  —  Under  Richard  I  many  towns  secured 
charters  giving  them  the  control  of  their  own  affairs  in  great  measure. 
In  this  way  municipal  self-government  arose,  and  a  prosperous  and 
intelligent  class  of  merchants  and  artisans  grew  up  who  eventually 
obtained  important  political  influence  in  the  management  of  national 
affairs. 

313.  The  Great,  or  National,  Charter.  —  This  pledge,  extorted  from 
King  John  in  1215,  put  a  check  to  the  arbitrary  power  of  the  sover¬ 
eign,  and  guaranteed  the  rights  of  all  classes,  from  the  serf  and 
the  townsman  to  the  bishop  and  baron  (§  251).  It  consisted  origi¬ 
nally  of  sixty-three  articles,  founded  mainly  on  the  first  royal  charter 
(that  of  Henry  I),  given  in  1100.  (See  §  185,  and  note.) 

It  was  not  a  statement  of  principles,  but  a  series  of  specific  reme¬ 
dies  for  specific  abuses,  which  may  be  summarized  as  follows:  — 

1 .  The  Church  to  be  free  from  royal  interference,  especially  in  the 
election  of  bishops. 

2.  No  taxes  except  the  regular  feudal  dues  (see  §  200)  to  be  levied, 
except  by  the  consent  of  the  National  Council. 

3.  The  Court  of  Common  Pleas  (see  §  197,  note),  not  to  follow 
the  King,  but  remain  stationary  at  Westminster.  Justice  to  be  neither 
sold,  denied,  nor  delayed.  No  man  to  be  imprisoned,  outlawed,  pun¬ 
ished,  or  otherwise  molested,  save  by  the  judgment  of  his  equals  or 
the  law  of  the  land.  The  necessary  implements  of  all  freemen,  and 
the  farming-tools  of  villeins  or  serfs  (§  160),  to  be  exempt  from  seizure. 

4.  Weights  and  measures  to  be  kept  uniform  throughout  the  realm. 


1 54- 1 399]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


143 


All  merchants  to  have  the  right  to  enter  and  leave  the  kingdom 
without  paying  exorbitant  tolls  for  the  privilege. 

5.  Forest  laws  to  be  justly  enforced. 

6.  The  charter  to  be  carried  out  by  twenty-five  barons  together 
with  the  mayor  of  London. 

This  document  marks  the  beginning  of  a  written  constitution,  and 
it  proved  of  the  highest  value  henceforth  in  securing  good  gov¬ 
ernment.  It  was  confirmed  thirty-seven  times  by  subsequent  kings 
and  parliaments,  the  confirmation  of  this  and  previous  charters  by 
Edward  I  in  1297  being  of  especial  importance. 

314.  Rise  of  the  House  of  Commons.  —  In  1265,  under  Henry  III. 
through  the  influence  of  Simon  de  Montfort,  two  representatives  from 
each  city  and  borough,  or  town,  together  with  two  knights  of  the 
shire,  or  country  gentlemen,  were  summoned  to  meet  with  the  lords 
and  clergy  in  the  National  Council,  or  Parliament.  From  this  time 
the  body  of  the  people  began  to  have  a  voice  in  making  the  laws. 

Later  in  the  period  the  knights  of  the  shire  joined  the  representa¬ 
tives  from  the  towns  in  forming  a  distinct  body  in  Parliament  sitting 
by  themselves  under  the  name  of  the  House  of  Commons.  They 
obtained  the  power  of  levying  all  taxes,  and  also  of  impeaching  before 
the  House  of  Lords  any  government  officer  guilty  of  misuse  of  power. 

315.  New  Class  of  Barons.  —  Under  Henry  III  other  influential 
men  of  the  realm,  aside  from  the  great  landholders  and  barons  by 
tenure,  began  to  be  summoned  to  the  King’s  council.  These  were 
called  “barons  by  writ.”  Later  (under  Richard  II),  barons  were 
created  by  open  letters  bearing  the  royal  seal,  and  were  called 
“  barons  by  patent.”  1 

316.  Land  Laws. —  During  this  period  important  laws  (De  Donis, 
or  Entail,  and  Quia  Emptores)  respecting  land  were  passed,  which 
had  the’  effect  of  keeping  estates  in  families,  and  also  of  preventing 
their  possessors  from  evading  their  feudal  duties  to  the  King.  At 
the  same  time  a  restriction  on  the  acquisition  of  land  by  the  Church 
(Statute  of  Mortmain),  which  was  exempt  from  paying  certain  feudal 
dues,  was  also  imposed  to  prevent  the  King’s  revenue  from  being 
diminished. 

1  This  is  the  modern  method  of  raising  a  subject  {eg.,  Lord  Tennyson)  to  the 
peerage.  It  marks  the  fact  that  from  the  thirteenth  century  the  ownership  of  land 
was  no  longer  considered  a  necessary  condition  of  nobility  ;  and  that  the  peerage  had 
now  developed  into  the  five  degrees,  which  it  still  maintains,  of  dukes,  marquises, 
earls,  viscounts,  and  barons. 


144  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [n 54-1399 


RELIGION 

317.  Restriction  of  the  Papal  Power.  —  During  the  Angevin  period 
the  popes  endeavored  to  introduce  the  canon  law  (a  body  of  ordi¬ 
nances  consisting  mainly  of  the  decisions  of  church  councils  and 
popes)  into  England,  with  the  view  of  making-  it  supreme  ;  but  Par¬ 
liament,  at  Merton,  refused  to  accept  it,  saying,  “We  will  not  change 
the  laws  of  England.” 

The  Statute  of  Mortmain  was  also  passed  (see  §  278)  and  other 
measures  (Statute  of  Provisors  and  Statute  of  Prasmunire)  (§  295), 
which  forbade  the  Pope  from  taking  the  appointment  of  bishops 
and  other  ecclesiastics  out  of  the  hands  of  the  clergy ;  and  which 
prohibited  any  appeal  from  the  king’s  court  to  the  papal  court. 
Furthermore,  many  hundreds  of  parishes,  formerly  filled  by  foreigners 
who  could  not  speak  English,  were  now  given  to  native  priests,  and 
the  sending  of  money  out  of  the  country  to  support  foreign  ecclesi¬ 
astics  was  in  great  measure  stopped. 

During  the  crusades  two  religious  military  orders  had  been  estab¬ 
lished,  called  the  Knights  Hospitallers  and  the  Knights  Templars. 
The  object  of  the  former  was,  originally,  to  provide  entertainment  for 
pilgrims  going  to  Jerusalem  ;  that  of  the  latter,  to  protect  them.  Both 
had  extensive  possessions  in  England.  In  1312  the  order  of  Tem¬ 
plars  was  broken  up  on  a  charge  of  heresy  and  evil  life,  and  their 
property  in  England  given  to  the  Knights  Hospitallers,  who  were  also 
called  Knights  of  St.  John. 

318.  Reform.  —  The  Mendicant  Friars  began  a  reformatory  move¬ 
ment  in  the  Church  and  accomplished  much  good.  This  was  followed 
by  Wycliffe’s  attack  on  religious  abuses,  by  his  translation  of  the 
Bible,  with  the  revival  carried  on  by  the  “  Poor  Priests,”  and  by  the 
rise  of  the  Lollards,  who  were  eventually  punished  by  the  passage  of 
severe  laws,  partly  on  the  ground  of  their  heretical  opinions,  and 
partly  because  they  became  in  a  measure  identified  with  socialistic 
and  communistic  efforts  to  destroy  rank  and  equalize  property. 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS 


319.  Scutage.  —  By  a  tax  called  scutage,  or  shield-money,  levied  on 
all  knights  who  refused  to  serve  the  King  in  foreign  wars,  Henry  II 
obtained  the  means  to  hire  soldiers.  By  a  law  reviving  the  national 
militia,  composed  of  freemen  below  the  rank  of  knights,  the  King  made 


i 1 54-1399]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


145 


himself  in  great  measure  independent  of  the  barons,  with  respect  to 
raising  troops. 

320.  Armor  ;  Heraldry.  —  The  linked  or  mail  armor  now  began  to 
be  superseded  by  that  made  of  pieces  of  steel  joined  together  so  as  to 
fit  the  body.  This,  when  it  was  finally  perfected,  was  called  plate 
armor,  and  was  both  heavier  and  stronger  than  mail. 

With  the  introduction  of  plate  armor  and  the  closed  helmet  it 
became  the  custom  for  each  knight  to  wear  a  device,  called  a  crest, 
on  his  helmet,  and  also  to  have  one  called  a  coat  of  arms  (because 
originally  worn  on  a  loose  coat  over  the  armor). 

This  served  to  distinguish  him  from  others,  and  was  of  practical 
use  not  only  to  the  followers  of  a  great  lord,  who  thus  knew  him  at  a 
glance,  but  it  served  in  time  of  battle  to  prevent  the  confusion  of 
friend  and  foe.  Eventually,  coats  of  arms  became  hereditary,  and 
the  descent,  and  to  some  extent  the  history,  of  a  family  can  be  traced 
by  them.  In  this  way  heraldry  serves  as  a  help  to  the  knowledge  of 
men  and  events. 

321.  Chivalry;  Tournaments.  —  The  profession  of  arms  was  regu¬ 
lated  by  certain  rules,  by  which  each  knight  solemnly  bound  himself 
to  serve  the  cause  of  religion  and  the  king,  and  to  be  true,  brave, 
and  courteous  to  those  of  his  own  rank,  to  protect  ladies  (women 
of  gentle  birth),  and  succor  all  persons  in  distress.  Under  Edward  1 1 1 
chivalry  reached  its  culmination  and  began  to  decline. 

One  of  the  grotesque  features  of  the  attack  on  France  was  an  expe¬ 
dition  of  English  knights  with  one  eye  bandaged  ;  this  half-blind 
company  having  vowed  to  partially  renounce  their  sight  until  they  did 
some  glorious  deed.  The  chief  amusement  of  the  nobles  and  knights 
was  the  Tournament,  a  mock  combat  fought  on  horseback,  in  full 
armor,  which  sometimes  ended  in  a  real  battle.  At  these  entertain¬ 
ments  a  lady  was  chosen  queen,  who  gave  prizes  to  the  victors. 

322.  The  Use  of  the  Long-Bow  ;  Introduction  of  Cannon  ;  Wars.  — 
The  common  weapon  of  the  yeomen,  or  foot-soldiers,  was  the  long¬ 
bow.  It  was  made  of  yew-tree  wood,  and  was  of  the  height  of  the 
user.  Armed  with  this  weapon,  the  English  soldiers  proved  them¬ 
selves  irresistible  in  the  French  wars,  the  French  having  no  native 
archers  of  any  account. 

Roger  Bacon  is  supposed  to  have  known  the  properties  of  gunpow¬ 
der  as  early  as  1250,  but  no  practical  use  was  made  of  the  discovery 
until  the  battle  of  Crdcy,  1346,  when  a  few  very  small  cannon  are  said 


146  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1 154-1399 


to  have  been  employed  by  the  English  against  the  enemy’s  cavalry. 
Later,  they  were  used  to  throw  heavy  stones  in  besieging  castles. 
Still  later,  rude  hand-guns  came  slowly  into  use.  From  this  period 
kings  gradually  began  to  realize  the  full  meaning  of  the  harmless- 
looking  black  grains,  with  whose  flash  and  noise  the  Oxford  monk 
had  amused  himself. 

The  chief  wars  of  the  time  were  the  contests  between  the  kings 
and  the  barons,  Richard  I’s  crusade..  John’s  war  with  France,  result¬ 
ing  in  the  loss  of  Normandy,  Edward  I’s  conquest  of  Wales  and 
temporary  subjugation  of  Scotland,  and  the  beginning  of  the  Hundred 
Years’  War  with  France  under  Edward  III. 

The  navy  of  this  period  was  made  up  of  small,  one-masted  vessels, 
seldom  carrying  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  fighting  men.  As  the 
mariner's  compass  had  now  come  into  'general  use,  these  vessels 
could,  if  occasion  required,  make  voyages  of  considerable  length. 

LEARNING,  LITERATURE,  AND  ART 

323.  Education.  —  In  1264  Walter  de  Merton  founded  the  first 
college  at  Oxford,  an  institution  which  has  ever  since  borne  his  name, 
and  which  really  originated  the  English  college  system.  During  the 
reign  of  Edward  III,  William  of  Wykeham,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
gave  a  decided  impulse  to  higher  education  by  the  establishment,  at 
his  own  expense,  of  Winchester  College,  the  first  great  public  school 
founded  in  England.  Later,  he  built  and  endowed  New  College  at 
Oxford  to  supplement  it. 

In  Merton’s  and  Wykeham’s  institutions  young  men  of  small 
means  were  instructed,  and  in  great  measure  supported,  without 
charge.  They  were  brought  together  under  one  roof,  required  to  con¬ 
form  to  proper  discipline,  and  taught  by  the  best  teachers  of  the  day. 
In  this  way  a  general  feeling  of  emulation  was  roused,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  fraternal  spirit  cultivated  which  had  a  strong  influ¬ 
ence  in  favor  of  a  broader  and  deeper  intellectual  culture  than  the 
monastic  schools  at  Oxford  and  elsewhere  had  encouraged. 

324.  Literature.  —  The  most  prominent  historical  work  was  that 
by  Matthew  Paris,  a  monk  of  St.  Alban’s,  written  in  Latin,  based 
largely  on  earlier  chronicles,  and  covering  the  period  from  the 
Norman  Conquest,  1066,  to  his  death,  in  1259.  It  is  a  work  of 
much  value,  and  was  continued  by  writers  of  the  same  abbey. 

The  first  English  prose  work  was  a  volume  of  travels  by  Sir  John 


1 1 54-1399]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


147 


Mandeville,  dedicated  to  Edward  III.  It  was  followed  by  Wycliffe’s 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  English  from  the  Latin  version,  and  by 
Chaucer’s  “  Canterbury  Tales,”  the  first  great  English  poem. 

325.  Architecture.  —  Edward  I  and  his  successors  began  to  build 
structures  combining  the  palace  with  the  stronghold.1  Conway  and 
Caernarvon  Castles  in  Wales,  Warwick  Castle,  Warwickshire,  and  a 
great  part  of  Windsor  Castle  on  the  Thames,  twenty-three  miles  west 
of  London,  are  magnificent  examples,  the  last  still  being  occupied  as 
a  royal  residence. 

In  churches,  the  massive  architecture  of  the  Normans,  with  its 
heavy  columns  and  round  arches,  was  followed  by  Early  English,  or 
the  first  period  of  the  Gothic,  with  pointed  arches,  slender,  clustered, 
columns  and  tapering  spires,  like  that  of  Salisbury  Cathedral. 

Later,  the  Decorated  style  was  adopted.  It  was  characterized  by 
broader  windows,  highly  ornamented  to  correspond  with  the  elaborate 
decoration  within,  which  gave  this  style  its  name,  which  is  seen  to 
advantage  in  Exeter  Cathedral,  York  Minster,  and  Merton  College 
Chapel. 

GENERAL  INDUSTRY 

326.  Fairs ;  Guilds.  —  The  domestic  trade  of  the  country  was 
largely  carried  on  during  this  period  by  great  fairs  held  at  stated 
times  by  royal  license.  Bunyan,  in  “  Pilgrim’s  Progress,”  gives  a  vivid 
picture  of  one  of  these  centres  of  trade  and  dissipation,  under  the 
name  of  “Vanity  Fair.”  Though  it  represents  the  great  fair  of 
Sturbridge,  near  Cambridge,  as  he  saw  it  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
yet  it  undoubtedly  describes  similar  gatherings  in  the  time  of  the 
Plantagenets. 

In  all  large  towns  the  merchants  had  formed  associations  for 
mutual  protection  and  the  advancement  of  trade,  called  merchant- 
guilds.  Artisans  now  instituted  similar  societies,  under  the  name  of 
craft-guilds.  For  a  long  time  the  merchant-guilds  endeavored  to  shut 
out  the  craft-guilds,  the  men,  as  they  said,  “  with  dirty  hands  and  blue 
nails,”  from  having  any  part  in  the  government  of  the  towns.  But 
eventually  the  latter  got  their  full  share,  and  in  some  cases,  as  in  Lon¬ 
don,  became  the  more  influential  party  of  the  two.  In  London  they 
still  survive  under  the  name  of  the  “  City  Companies.” 

1  The  characteristic  features  of  the  Edwardian  castles  are  double  surrounding 
walls,  with  numerous  protecting  towers,  and 'the  omission  of  the  square  Norman 
keep. 


148  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1154-1399 


327.  The  Wool  Trade.  —  Under  Edward  Ilia  flourishing  trade  in 
wool  grew  up  between  England  and  Flanders.  The  manufacture  of 
line  woollen  goods  was  also  greatly  extended  in  England.  All  com¬ 
merce  at  this  period  was  limited  to  certain  market  towns  called 
“  staples.” 

To  these  places  material  and  goods  for  export  had  to  be  carried  in 
order  that  they  might  pay  duty  to  the  Government  before  leaving  the 
country.  Imports  also  paid  duties.  If  an  Englishman  carried  goods 
abroad  and  sold  them  in  the  open  market  without  first  paying  a  tax 
to  the  Crown,  he  was  liable  to  the  punishment  of  death. 

328.  The  Great  Strike. — The  scarcity  of  laborers  caused  by  the 
ravages  of  the  Black  Death  caused  a  general  strike  for  higher  wages 
on  the  part  of  free  workingmen,  and  also  induced  thousands  of  vil¬ 
leins  to  run  away  from  their  masters,  in  order  to  get  work  on  their  own 
account.  The  general  uprising  which  a  heavy  poll-tax  caused  among 
the  laboring  class,  though  suppressed  at  the  time,  led  to  the  ultimate 
emancipation  of  the  villeins,  by  a  gradual  process  extending  through 
many  generations. 

MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND  CUSTOMS 

329.  Dress  ;  Furniture.  —  During  most  of  this  period  great  luxury- 
in  dress  prevailed  among  the  rich  and  noble.  Silks,  velvets,  scarlet 
cloth  and  cloth  of  gold  were  worn  by  both  men  and  women.  At  one 
time  the  lords  and  gallants  at  court  wore  shoes  with  points  curled  up 
like  rams’  horns  and  fastened  to  the  knee  with  silver  chains. 

Attempts  were  made  by  the  Government  to  abolish  this  and  other 
ridiculous  fashions,  and  also  to  regulate  the  cost  of  dress  according 
to  the  rank  and  means  of  the  wearer  ;  but  the  effort  met  with  small 
success.  Even  the  rich  at  this  time  had  but  little  furniture  in  their 
houses,  and  chairs  were  almost  unknown.  The  floors  of  houses 
were  strewn  with  rushes,  which,  as  they  were  rarely  changed,  became 
horribly  filthy,  and  were  a  prolific  cause  of  sickness. 

330.  The  Streets  ;  Amusements  ;  Profanity.  —  The  streets  of  Lon¬ 
don  and  other  cities  were  rarely  more  than  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  wide. 
They  were  neither  paved  nor  lighted.  Pools  of  stagnant  water  and 
heaps  of  refuse  abounded.  There  was  no  sewerage.  The  only 
scavengers  were  the  crows.  The  houses  were  of  timber  and  plaster, 
with  projecting  stories,  and  destructive  fires  were  common.  The  chief 
amusements  were  hunting  and  hawking,  contests  at  archery,  and 


1 1 54-1399]  THE  ANGEVINS,  OR  PLANTAGENETS 


I49 


tournaments.  Plays  were  acted  by  amateur  companies  on  stages  on 
wheels,  which  could  be  moved  from  street  to  street. 

The  subjects  continued  to  be  drawn  in  large  measure  from  the 
Bible  and  from  legends  of  the  saints.  They  served  to  instruct  men  in 
Scripture  history,  in  an  age  when  few  could  read.  The  instruction 
was  not,  however,  always  taken  to  heart,  as  profane  swearing  was  so 
common  that  an  Englishman  was  called  on  the  continent  by  his 
favorite  oath,  which  the  French  regarded  as  a  sort  of  national  name 
before  that  of  “John  Bull”  came  into  use. 


150  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1399-1413 


SECTION  VII 

“  God’s  most  dreaded  instrument, 

In  working  out  a  pure  intent, 

Is  man  —  arrayed  for  mutual  slaughter.” 

Wordsworth. 

THE  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 

BARON  against  BARON 

The  Houses  of  Lancaster  and  York  (1399-1485) 

House  of  Lancaster  (the  Red  Rose).  House  of  York  (the  White  Rose). 
Henry  IV,  1399-1413.  Edward  IV,  1461-1483. 

Henry  V,  1413-1422.  IEdward  V,  1483. 

♦Henry  VI,  1422-1471.  Richard  III,  1483-14S5. 

331.  Henry  IV’s  Accession. — Richard  II  left  no  children. 

The  nearest  heir  to  the  kingdom  by  right  of  birth  was  the  boy 
Edmund  Mortimer,  a  descendant  of  Richard’s  uncle  Lionel,  Duke 
of  Clarence.1  Henry  ignored  Mortimer’s  claim,  and  standing  before 
Richard’s  empty  throne  in  Westminster  Hall,  boldly  demanded 
the  crown  for  himself.2 

The  nation  had  suffered  so  much  from  the  misgovernment  of 
those  who  had  ruled  during  the  minority  of  Richard,  that  they 


*  Henry  VI,  deposed  1461  ;  reinstated  for  a  short  time  in  1470. 

f  Edward  V,  never  crowned. 

1  See  genealogical  table,  note,  §  309. 

2  “In  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  I,  Henry  of  Lancaster,  chal¬ 
lenge  this  realm  of  England  and  the  Crown,  with  all  the  members  and  the  appurte¬ 
nances,  as  that  I  am  descended  by  right  line  of  blood,  coming  from  the  good  King 
Henry  III,  and  through  that  right  that  God  of  his  grace  hath  sent  me,  with  help  of 
kin  and  of  all  my  friends  to  recover  it,  the  which  realm  was  in  point  to  be  undone 
by  default  of  government  and  undoing  of  the  good  laws,” 


1399-1413]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM  1 5  I 

wanted  no  more  boy  kings.  Parliament,  therefore,  set  aside  the 
direct  line  of  descent  and  accepted  Henry. 

332.  Conspiracy  in  Favor  of  Richard.  —  The  new  King  had 
hardly  seated  himself  on  the  throne  when  a  conspiracy  was  dis¬ 
covered,  having  for  its  object  the  release  and  restoration  of 
Richard,  still  a  prisoner  in  Pontefract  Castle  (§  309).  The  plot 
was  easily  crushed.  A  month  later  Richard  was  found  dead. 

Henry  had  his  body  brought  up  to  London  and  exposed  to 
public  view  in  St.  Paul’s  Cathedral,  in  order  that  not  only  the 
people,  but  all  would-be  conspirators  might  now  see  that  Richard’s 
hands  could  never  again  wield  the  sceptre. 

There  was,  however,  one  man  at  least  who  refused  to  be  con¬ 
vinced.  Owen  Glendower,  a  Welshman,  whom  the  late  King  had 
befriended,  declared  that  Richard  was  still  living,  and  that  the 
corpse  exhibited  was  not  his  body.  Glendower  prepared  to  main¬ 
tain  his  belief  by  arms.  King  Henry  mustered  a  force  with  the 
intention  of  invading  Wales  and  crushing  the  rebel  on  his  own 
ground  ;  but  a  succession  of  terrible  tempests  ensued. 

The  English  soldiers  got  the  idea  that  Glendower  raised  these 
storms,  for  as  an  old  chronicle  declares  :  “  Through  art  magike 
he  [Glendower]  caused  such  foule  weather  of  winds,  tempest, 
raine,  snow,  and  haile  to  be  raised  for  the  annoiance  of  the  King’s 
armie,  that  the  like  had  not  beene  heard  of.”  1  For  this  reason 
the  troops  became  disheartened,  and  the  King  was  obliged  to 
postpone  the  expedition. 

333.  Revolt  of  the  Percies;  Parliament’s  Bold  Step  (1407). — 

The  powerful  Percy  family  had  been  active  in  helping  Henry  to 
obtain  the  throne,2  and  had  spent  large  sums  in  defending  the 
North  against  invasions  from  Scotland.3  They  expected  a  royal 
reward  for  these  services,  and  were  sorely  disappointed  because 
they  did  not  get  it.  As  young  Henry  Percy  said  of  the  King  :  — 

“  My  father,  and  my  uncle,  and  myself, 

Did  give  him  that  same  royalty  he  wears; 

1  Holinshed’s  Chronicle.  2  Thomas  Percy,  Earl  of  Worcester,  with  Henry 
Percy,  Earl  of  Northumberland,  and  his  son,  Sir  Henry  Percy,  or  “  Hotspur.” 
See  §  309.  8  See  the  Ballad  of  Chevy  Chase. 


152  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1399-1413 


And,  —  when  he  was  not  six-and-twenty  strong, 

Sick  in  the  world’s  regard,  wretched  and  low, 

A  poor,  unminded  outlaw  sneaking  home,  — 

My  father  gave  him  welcome  to  the  shore: 

Swore  him  assistance  and  perform’d  it  too,” 1 

But  the  truth  is,  Henry  had  little  to  give  except  promises.  Parlia¬ 
ment  voted  money  cautiously,  limiting  its  supplies  to  specific  pur¬ 
poses.  Men  of  wealth,  feeling  anxious  about  the  issue  of  the 
King’s  usurpation,  —  for  such  many  regarded  it,  —  were  afraid  to 
lend  him  what  he  required.  Finally  (1407)  the  House  of  Com¬ 
mons  took  a  bold  and  decisive  step.  It  demanded  and  obtained 
the  exclusive  right  of  making  all  grants  of  money  which  the  King 
asked  for.  This  practically  gave  the  people  the  control  of  the 
nation’s  purse.'2  Besides  being  held  in  check  by  Parliament,  the 
King  was  hampered  by  a  council  whose  advice  he  had  pledged 
himself  to  follow.  For  these  reasons  Henry’s  position  was  in 
every  way  precarious. 

He  had  no  clear  title  to  the  throne,  and  he  had  no  means  to 
buy  military  support.  In  addition  to  these  difficulties,  Henry  had 
made  an  enemy  of  Sir  Henry  Percy.  He  had  refused  to  ransom 
his  brother-in-law,  a  Mortimer,3  whom  Glendower  had  captured, 
but  whom  the  King  wished  well  out  of  the  way  with  all  others  of 
that  name. 

Young  Percy  proved  a  dangerous  foe.  His  hot  temper  and 
impetuous  daring  had  got  for  him  the  title  of  “  the  Hotspur  of  the 
North.”  He  was  so  fond  of  fighting  that  Shakespeare  speaks  of 
him  as  “  he  that  kills  me  some  six  or  seven  dozen  of  Scots  at  a 
breakfast,  washes  his  hands,  and  says  to  his  wife,  Fie  upon  this 
quid  life!  I  want  work .” 4  This  “fire-eater,”  with  his  father, 
his  uncle,  the  Earl  of  Worcester,  and  the  Scotch  Earl  of  Douglas, 

1  Shakespeare,  Henry  IV,  Part  I,  Act  IV,  Scene  3. 

2  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xii,  §  13. 

3  Sir  Edmund  Mortimer  :  he  was  uncle  to  the  Edmund  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March, 
who  was  heir  to  the  crown.  See  Bailey’s  Succession  to  the  English  Crown. 

4  Shakespeare,  Henry  IV,  Part  I,  Act  II,  Scene  4. 


i399— 141 3]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 


153 


and,  last  of  all,  Glendower,  now  formed  an  alliance  to  force  Henry 
to  give  up  the  throne. 

334.  Battle  of  Shrewsbury  (1403).  —  At  Shrewsbury,  on  the 
edge  of  Wales,  the  armies  of  the  King  and  of  the  revolutionists 
met.  A  number  of  Henry’s  enemies  had  sworn  to  single  him  out 
in  battle.  The  plot  was  divulged,  and  it  is  said  thirteen  knights 
arrayed  themselves  in  armor  resembling  the  King’s  in  order  to 
mislead  the  assailants.  The  whole  thirteen  perished  on  that 
bloody  field,  where  fat  Sir  John  Falstaff  vowed  he  fought  on 
Henry’s  behalf  “  a  long  hour  by  Shrewsbury  clock.”  1 

The  insurgents  were  utterly  defeated.  Douglas  was  taken  pris¬ 
oner,  “  Hotspur  ”  was  killed,  and  several  of  his  companions  were 
beheaded  after  the  battle.  But  new  insurrections  arose,  and  the 
country  was  far  from  enjoying  any  permanent  peace. 

335.  Persecution  of  the  Lollards  ;  Statute  of  Heresy  ;  the  First 
Martyr  (1401).  — Thus  far  Henry  had  spent  much  time  in  crush¬ 
ing  rebels,  but  he  had  also  given  part  of  it  to  burning  heretics. 
To  gain  the  favor  of  the  clergy,  and  so  render  his  throne  more 
secure,  the  King  favored  the  passage  of  a  Statute  of  Heresy.  The 
lords  and  bishops  passed  such  a  law  (to  which  the  House  of 
Commons  seems  to  have  assented).2  It  punished  the  Lollards 
(§  307)  and  others  who  dissented  from  the  doctrines  of  Rome 
with  death. 

William  Sawtrey,  a  London  clergyman,  was  the  first  victim 
under  the  new  law  (1401).  He  had  declared  that  he  would  not 
worship  “  the  cross  on  which  Christ  suffered,  but  only  Christ  him¬ 
self  who  had  suffered  on  the  cross.”  He  had  also  openly  denied 
the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  which  teaches  that  the  sacra¬ 
mental  bread  is  miraculously  changed  into  the  actual  body  of  the 
Saviour.  For  these  and  minor  heresies  he  was  burned  at  Smith- 
field,  in  London,  in  the  presence  of  a  great  multitude. 

Some  years  later  a  second  martyrdom  took  place.  But  as  the 
English  people  would  not  allow  torture  to  be  used  in  the  case  of 
the  Knights  Templars  in  the  reign  of  Edward  II  (§317),  so  they 

1  Shakespeare,  Henry  IV,  Part  I,  Act  V,  Scene  4. 

2  See  Stubbs’  Constitutional  History  of  England,  III,  32. 


1 54  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1399-1413 


never  favored  the  idea  that  by  committing  the  body  to  the  flames 
error  could  thereby  be  burned  out  of  the  soul. 

The  Lollards,  indeed,  were  still  cast  into  prison,  as  some  of  the 
extreme  and  communistic  part  of  them  doubtless  deserved  to  be, 
but  we  hear  of  no  more  being  put  to  cruel  deaths  during  Henry’s 
reign,  though  later,  the  utmost  rigor  of  the  law  was  again  to  some 
extent  enforced. 

336.  Henry’s  Last  Days. — Toward  the  close  of  his  life  the 
King  seems  to  have  thought  of  reviving  the  crusades  for  the  con¬ 
quest  of  Jerusalem,  where,  according  to  tradition,  an  old  predic¬ 
tion  declared  that  he  should  die.  But  his  Jerusalem  was  nearer 
than  that  of  Palestine.  While  praying  at  the  tomb  of  Edward  the 
Confessor  in  Westminster  Abbey,  he  was  seized  with  mortal  illness. 
His  attendants  carried  him  into  a  room  near  by. 

When  he  recovered  consciousness,  and  inquired  where  he  was, 
he  was  told  that  the  apartment  was  called  the  Jerusalem  Chamber. 
“  Praise  be  to  God,”  he  exclaimed,  “  then  here  I  die  !  ”  There 
he  breathed  his  last,  saying  to  his  son,  young  Prince  Henry  :  — 

“God  knows,  my  son, 

By  what  by-paths  and  indirect  crook’d  ways, 

I  met  this  crown ;  and  I  myself  know  well 
How  troublesome  it  sat  upon  my  head  ; 

To  thee  it  shall  descend  with  better  quiet, 

Better  opinion,  better  confirmation  ; 

For  all  the  soil  of  the  achievement1  goes 
With  me  into  the  earth.” 

337.  Summary.  — At  the  outset  of  his  reign  Parliament  showed 
its  power  by  changing  the  succession  and  making  Henry  King 
instead  of  young  Edmund  Mortimer,  the  direct  hereditary  heir  to 
the  crown.  Though  successful  in  crushing  rebellion,  Henry  was 
obliged  to  submit  to  the  guidance  of  a  council. 

Furthermore,  he  was  made  more  entirely  dependent  on  Parlia¬ 
ment,  especially  in  the  matter  of  supplies,  than  any  previous  king, 
for  the  House  of  Commons  now  got  and  held  control  of  the 

1  “  Soil  of  the  achievement  ” :  stain  or  blame  by  which  the  crown  was  won. 
Henry  IV,  Part  II,  Act  IV,  Scene  4. 


1 399- 1413]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 


155 


nation’s  purse.  For  the  first  time  in  English  history  heresy  was 
made  punishable  by  death  ;  yet  such  was  the  restraining  influence 
of  the  people,  that  but  two  executions  took  place. 


HENRY  V  — 1413-1422 


338.  Lollard  Outbreak  at  Henry’s  Accession.  —  Henry’s  youth 
had  been  wild  and  dissolute,  but  the  weight  of  the  crown  sobered 
him.  He  cast  off  poor  old  Jack  Falstaff  and  his  other  roistering 
companions,  and  began  his  new  duties  in  earnest. 

Sir  John  Oldcastle,  or  Lord  Cobham,  was  at  this  time  the  most 
influential  man  among  the  Lollards  (§§  307,  335).  He  was 
brought  to  trial  and  convicted  of  heresy.  The  penalty  was  death  ; 
but  the  King  granted  him  a  respite,  in  the  hope  that  he  might 
recant.  Oldcastle  managed  to  escape  from  prison  (1414). 

Immediately  after,  a  conspiracy  was  detected  among  the  Lol¬ 
lards  for  seizing  the  government,  destroying  the  chief  monasteries 
in  and  about  London,  and  raising  Oldcastle  to  power.  Henry 
attacked  the  rebels  unawares,  killed  many,  and  took  a  large  num¬ 
ber  of  prisoners,  who  were  executed  on  a  double  charge  of  heresy 
and  treason.  Several  years  afterwards  Oldcastle  was  burned  as 
a  heretic. 

339.  Report  that  Richard  II  was  alive.  —  A  strange  report  now 
began  to  circulate.  It  was  said  that  Richard  II  (§  309)  had  been 
seen  in  Scotland,  and  that  he  was  preparing  to  claim  the  throne 
which  Henry’s  father  had  taken  from  him.  To  silence  this 
seditious  rumor,  the  King  exhumed  Richard’s  body  from  its 
grave  in  the  little  village  of  Langley,  Hertfordshire.  The  ghastly 
remains  were  propped  up  in  a  chair  of  state  so  that  all  might 
see  them. 

In  this  manner  the  King  and  his  court  escorted  the  corpse  in 
solemn  procession  to  Westminster  Abbey,  where  it  was  reinterred 
among  the  tombs  of  the  English  sovereigns.  With  it  he  buried 
once  for  all  the  troublesome  falsehood  which  had  kept  up  insurrec¬ 
tion,  and  had  made  the  deposed  King  more  feared  after  death  than 
he  had  ever  been  during  life. 


156  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1413-142 


340.  War  with  France  (1415).  — To  divert  the  attention  of  the 

nation  from  dangerous  home  questions  likely  to  cause  fresh  revolts, 
Henry  now  determined  to  act  on  his  father’s  dying  counsel  and 
pick  a  foreign  quarrel.  The  old  grudge  against  France,  which 
began  with  the  feuds  of  Duke  William  of  Normandy  before  he 
conquered  England,  made  a  w-ar  with  that  country  always  popular. 
At  this  period  the  French  were  divided  into  fierce  parties  wrho 
hated  each  other  even  more,  if  possible,  than  they  hated  the 
English.  This,  of  course,  greatly  increased  the  chances  of  Henry’s 
success,  as  he  might  form  an  alliance  with  one  of  these  factions. 

The  King  believed  it  a  good  opportunity  to  get  three  things  he 
wanted,  —  a  wife,  a  fortune,  and  the  French  crown.  The  King 
of  France  and  his  most  powerful  rival,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
had  each  a  daughter.  To  make  sure  of  one  of  them,  Henry 
secretly  proposed  to  both.  After  long  and  fruitless  negotiations 
the  French  King  declined  to  grant  the  enormous  dowry  winch 
the  English  King  demanded.  The  latter  gladly  interpreted  this 
refusal  as  equivalent  to  a  declaration  of  war. 

341.  Battle  of  Agincourt1  (1415).  —  Henry  set  to  wrork  with 
vigor,  raised  an  army,  and  invaded  France.  He  besieged  Har- 
fleur,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Seine,  and  took  it ;  but  his  army 
had  suffered  so  much  from  sickness  that,  after  leaving  a  garrison 
in  the  place,  he  resolved  to  move  north,  to  Calais,  and  await 
reinforcements. 

After  a  long  and  perilous  march  he  reached  a  little  village 
about  midway  between  Crecy  and  Calais.  There  he  encountered 
the  enemy  in  great  force.  Both  sides  prepared  for  battle.  The 
French  had  fifty  thousand  troops  to  Henry’s  seven  or  eight 
thousand  ;  but  the  latter  had  that  determination  which  wins  vic¬ 
tories.  He  said  to  one  of  his  nobles  who  regretted  that  he  had 
not  a  larger  force  :  — 

“  No,  my  fair  cousin  ; 

If  we  are  marked  to  die,  W'e  are  enough 
To  do  our  country  loss  ;  and  if  we  live, 

The  fewer  men,  the  greater  share  of  honor.”2 

1  Agincourt  (Ah'zhan'koor').  See  Map  No.  10,  facing  page  130. 

2  Henry  V,  Act  IV,  Scene  3. 


1413-1422]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 


157 


A  heavy  rain  had  fallen  during  the  night,  and  the  ploughed 
land  over  which  the  French  must  cross  was  so  wet  and  miry  that 
their  heavily  armed  horsemen  sank  deep  at  every  step.  The 
English  bowmen,  on  the  other  hand,  being  on  foot,  could  move 
with  ease.  Henry  ordered  every  archer  to  drive  a  stake,  sharp¬ 
ened  at  both  ends,  into  the  ground  before  him.  This  was  a  sub¬ 
stitute  for  the  modern  bayonet,  and  presented  an  almost  impassable 
barrier  to  the  French  cavalry. 

As  at  Cre'cy  and  Poitiers,  the  English  bowmen  gained  the  day 
(§§  290,  293).  The  sharp  stakes  stopped  the  enemy’s  horses, 
and  the  blinding  showers  of  arrows  threw  the  splendidly  armed 
knights  into  wild  confusion.  With  a  ringing  cheer  Henry’s  troops 
rushed  forward. 

“  When  down  their  bows  they  threw, 

And  forth  their  swords  they  drew, 

And  on  the  French  they  flew  : 

No  man  was  tardy. 

Arms  from  the  shoulder  sent  ; 

Scalps  to  the  teeth  they  rent; 

Down  the  French  peasants  went : 

These  were  men  hardy.”  1 

When  the  fight  was  over,  the  King  asked,  “  What  is  the  name 
of  that  castle  yonder?”  He  was  told  it  was  called  Agincourt. 
“Then,”  said  he,  “from  henceforth  this  shall  be  known  as  the 
.battle  of  Agincourt.” 

342.  Treaty  of  Troyes,2  1420;  Henry’s  Death.  —  Henry  went 
back  in  triumph  to  England.  Two  years  later,  he  again  invaded 
France.  His  victorious  course  continued.  By  the  Treaty  of 
Troyes  (1420),  he  gained  all  that  he  had  planned  to  get.  He 
obtained  large  sums  of  money,  the  French  princess  Catharine  in 
marriage,  and  the  promise  of  the  crowm  of  France  on  the  death 
of  her  father,  Charles  VI,  who  was  then  insane  and  feeble. 
Meantime  Henry  was  to  govern  the  kingdom  as  regent. 

1  These  vigorous  lines,  from  Drayton’s  Ballad  of  Agincourt,  if  not  quite  true 
to  the  letter  of  history  (since  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  French  peasants  were  on  the 
field),  are  wholly  true  to  its  spirit. 

2  Troyes  (Trw5). 


158  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1413-1422 


Henry  returned  to  England  with  the  bride  he  had  won  by  the 
sword,  but  he  was  soon  recalled  to  France  by  a  revolt  against  his 
power.  He  died  there,  leaving  an  infant  son,  Henry.  Two  months 
afterward  Charles  VI  died,  so  that  by  the  terms  of  the  treaty 
Henry’s  son  now  inherited  the  French  crown. 

343.  Summary.  — The  one  great  event  with  which  Henry  V’s 
name  is  connected  is  the  conquest  of  France.  It  was  hailed  at 
the  time  as  a  glorious  achievement.  In  honor  of  it  his  tomb  in 
Westminster  Abbey  was  surmounted  by  a  statue  of  the  King  having 
a  head  of  solid  silver.  Eventually  the  head  was  stolen  and  never 
recovered  ;  the  wooden  statue  still  remains.  The  theft  was  typical 
of  Henry’s  short-lived  victories  abroad,  for  all  the  territory  he  had 
gained  was  soon  destined  to  be  hopelessly  lost. 

HENRY  VI  (House  of  Lancaster,  Red  Rose)  — 1422-1471 1 

344.  Accession  of  Henry  ;  Renewal  of  the  French  War.  — The 

heir  to  all  the  vast  dominions  left  by  Henry  V  was  proclaimed 
King  of  England  and  France  when  in  his  cradle,  and  crowned, 
while  still  a  child,  first  at  Westminster  and  then  at  Paris. 

But  the  accession  to  the  French  possessions  was  merely  an 
empty  form,  for  as  the  son  of  the  late  Charles  VI  of  France 
refused  to  abide  by  the  Treaty  of  Troyes  (§342)  and  give  up 
the  throne,  war  again  broke  out. 

345.  Siege  of  Orleans.2  —  The  Duke  of  Bedford3  fought  vigor-^ 
ously  in  Henry’s  behalf.  In  five  years  the  English  had  got  pos¬ 
session  of  most  of  the  country  north  of  the  Loire.  They  now 
determined  to  make  an  effort  to  drive  the  French  Prince  south 
of  that  river.  To  accomplish  this  they  must  take  the  strongly 
fortified  town  of  Orleans,  which  was  situated  on  its  banks. 

Forts  were  accordingly  built  around  the  place,  and  cannon 
planted  to  batter  down  its  walls.  Six  months  later,  so  much 

1  Dethroned  1461,  restored  for  a  few  months  in  1470,  died  in  the  Tower  of 
London,  1471. 

2  Orleans  (Or'la-on).  See  Map  No.  8,  facing  page  88. 

3  During  Henry’s  minority,  John,  Duke  of  Bedford,  was  Protector  of  the  realm. 
When  absent  in  France,  Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  acted  for  him. 


1422-1461]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 


159 


progress  had  been  made  in  the  siege,  that  it  was  plain  the  city 
could  not  hold  out  much  longer.  The  fortunes  of  France  seemed 
to  depend  on  the  fate  of  Orleans.  If  it  fell,  they  would  go  with  it. 

346.  Joan  of  Arc1  (1429-1431). — At  this  juncture,  Joan  of 
Arc,  a  peasant  girl  of  eighteen,  came  forward  to  inspire  her 
despairing  countrymen  with  fresh  courage.  She  believed  that 
Heaven  had  called  her  to  drive  the  English  from  the  land.  The 
troops  rallied  round  her.  Clad  in  white  armor,  mounted  on  a 
white  war-horse,  she  led  the  troops  from  victory  to  victory,  until 
she  saw  Prince  Charles  triumphantly  crowned  in  the  Cathedral  of 
Rheims.2 

Her  fortunes  soon  changed.  Her  own  people  basely  abandoned 
her.  The  unworthy  King  Charles  made  no  attempt  to  protect 
the  “Maid  of  Orleans,”  and  she  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  infuri¬ 
ated  English,  who  believed  she  was  in  league  with  the  devil.  In 
accordance  with  this  belief  Joan  was  tried  for  witchcraft  and 
heresy  at  Rouen,  and  sentenced  to  the  flames.  She  died  (1431) 
as  bravely  as  she  had  lived,  saying  in  her  last  agonies  that  her 
celestial  voices  had  not  deceived  her,  and  that  through  them  she 
had  saved  France. 

“  God  forgive  us,”  exclaimed  one  of  Henry’s  courtiers  who  was 
present,  “we  are  lost  !  We  have  burned  a  saint  !  ”  It  was  the 
truth  ;  and  from  the  martyred  girl’s  ashes  a  new  spirit  seemed  to 
go  forth  to  bless  her  ungrateful  country.  The  heart  of  France 
was  touched.  The  people  rose  against  their  invaders. 

Before  Henry  VI  reached  his  thirtieth  year  the  Hundred  Years’ 
War  with  France,  which  Edward-  III  had  begun  (§  289),  was 
ended  (1453),  and  England  had  lost  all  of  her  possessions  on 
the  continent,  except  a  bare  foothold  at  Calais. 

347.  Henry  Vi’s  Character  and  Marriage.- — When  Henry 
became  of  age  he  proved  to  be  but  the  shadow  of  a  king.  His 
health  and  character  were  alike  feeble.  At  twenty-five  he  mar¬ 
ried  the  beautiful  and  unfortunate  Margaret  of  Anjou,  who  was 

1  The  name  given  by  the  English  to  Jeanne  d’Arc,  or  Dare.  Later,  the  French 
called  her  La  Pucelle,  “  The  Maid  ” ;  or  La  Pucelle  d’Orleans,  “  The  Maid  of 
Orleans.”  2  Rheims  (Ranz),  northeast  of  Paris.  See  Map  No.  10,  facing  page  130. 


l6o  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1422-1461 


by  far  the  better  man  of  the  two.  When  years  of  disaster  came, 
this  dauntless  “  queen  of  tears  ”  headed  councils,  led  armies,  and 
ruled  both  King  and  kingdom. 

348.  Poverty  of  the  Crown  and  Wealth  of  the  Nobles. — One 

cause  of  the  weakness  of  the  Government  was  its  poverty.  The 
revenues  of.  the  Crown  had  been  greatly  diminished  by  gifts  and 
grants  to  favorites.  The  King  was  obliged  to  pawn  his  jewels 
and  the  silver  plate  from  his  table  to  pay  his  wedding  expenses ; 
and  it  is  said  on  high  authority 1  that  the  royal  couple  were 
sometimes  in  actual  want  of  a  dinner. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Earl  of  Warwick  and  other  great  lords 
had  made  fortunes  out  of  the  French  wars,2  and  lived  in  regal 
splendor.  The  earl,  it  is  said,  had  at  his  different  castles  and  his 
city  mansion  in  London  upwards  of  thirty  thousand  men  in  his 
sendee.  Their  livery,  or  uniform,  a  bright  red  jacket  with  the 
Warwick  arms,  a  bear  erect  holding  a  ragged  staff,  embroidered 
on  it  in  white,  was  seen,  known,  and  feared  throughout  the 
country. 

Backed  by  such  forces  it  was  easy  for  the  earl  and  other  power¬ 
ful-  lords  to  overawe  kings,  parliaments,  and  courts.  Between 
these  heads  of  the  great  houses  quarrels  were  constantly  breaking 
out.  The  safety  of  the  people  was  endangered  by  these  feuds, 
which  became  more  and  more  violent,  and  often  ended  in  blood¬ 
shed  and  murder. 

349.  Disfranchisement  of  the  Common  People  (1430). — With 

the  growth  of  power  on  the  part  of  the  nobles,  there  was  also 
imposed  for  the  first  time  a  restriction  on  the  right  of  the  people 
to  vote  for  members  of  Parliament.  Up  to  this  period  all  free¬ 
men  might  take  part  in  the  election  of  representatives  chosen  by 
the  counties  to  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

A  law  was  now  passed  forbidding  any  one  to  vote  at,  these  elec¬ 
tions  unless  he  was  a  resident  of  the  county  and  possessed  of 

1  Fortescue,  on  the  Governance  of  England  (Plummer). 

2  First,  by  furnishing  troops  to  the  Government,  the  feudal  system  having  now 
so  far  decayed  that  many  soldiers  had  to  be  hired ;  secondly,  by  the  plunder  of  French 
cities ;  thirdly,  by  ransoms  obtained  from  noblemen  taken  prisoners. 


1422-1461]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM  l6l 

landed  property  yielding  an  annual  income  of  forty  shillings 
($200). 1  Subsequently  it  was  further  enacted  that  no  county 
candidate  should  be  eligible  unless  he  was  a  man  of  means  and 
social  standing. 

These  two  measures  were  blows  against  the  free  self-government 
of  the  nation,  since  their  manifest  tendency  was  to  make  the  House 
of  Commons  represent  the  property  rather  than  the  people  of  the 
country  (§  371).  (See,  too,  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in 
the  Appendix,  page  xiii,  §  14.) 

350.  Cade’s  Rebellion  (1450).  —  A  formidable  rebellion  broke 
out  in  Kent  (1450),  then,  as  now,  one  of  the  most  independent 
and  democratic  counties  in  England.  The  leader  was  Jack  Cade, 
who  called  himself  by  the  popular  name  of  Mortimer  (§  309, 
note  1,  and  §  331).  He  claimed  to  be  cousin  to  Richard,  Duke 
of  York,  a  nephew  of  that  Edmund  Mortimer,  now  dead,  whom 
Henry  IV  had  unjustly  deprived  of  his  succession  to  the  Crown. 

Cade,  who  was  a  mere  adventurer,  was  quite  likely  used  as  a 
tool  by  plotters  much  higher  than  himself.  By  putting  him  for¬ 
ward  they  could  judge  whether  the  country  was  ready  for  a  revo¬ 
lution  and  change  of  sovereigns. 

Wat  Tyler’s  rebellion,  seventy  years  before  (§  303),  was  almost 
purely  social  in  its  character,  having  for  its  object  the  emancipa¬ 
tion  of  the  enslaved  laboring  classes.  Cade’s  insurrection  was, 
on  the  contrary,  almost  wholly  political.  His  chief  complaint 
was  that  the  people  were  not  allowed  their  free  choice  in  the 
election  of  representatives,  but  were  forced  by  the  nobility  to 
choose  candidates  they  did  not  want. 

Other  grievances  for  which  reform  was  demanded  were  exces¬ 
sive  taxation  and  the  rapacity  of  the'  evil  counsellors  who  con¬ 
trolled  the  King. 

Cade  entered  London  with  a  body  of  twenty  thousand  men. 
He  took  formal  possession  of  the  place  by  striking  his  sword  on 
London  Stone,  —  a  Roman  monument  still  standing,  which  then 

1  The  income  required  by  the  statute  was  forty  shillings,  which,  says  Freeman, 
we  may  fairly  call  forty  pounds  of  our  present  money.  See  Freeman’s  Growth  of 
the  English  Constitution,  page  97. 


162  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1422-1461 


marked  the  centre  of  the  ancient  city,  —  saying,  as  Shakespeare 
reports  him,  “  Now  is  Mortimer  lord  of  this  city.”  1 

After  three  days  of  riot  and  the  murder  of  the  King’s  treasurer, 
the  rebellion  came  to  an  end  through  a  general  pardon.  Cade, 
however,  endeavored  to  raise  a  new  insurrection  in  the  south,  but 
was  shortly  after  captured,  and  died  of  his  wounds. 

351.  Wars  of  the  Roses  (1455-1485).  — The  real  significance 
of  Cade’s  insurrection  is  that  it  showed  the  widespread  feeling 
of  discontent  caused  by  misgovernment,  and  that  it  served  as  an 
introduction  to  the  long  and  dreary  period  of  civil  strife  known  as 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses. 

So  long  as  the  English  nobles  had  France  for  a  fighting  ground, 
French  cities  to  plunder,  and  French  captives  to  hold  for  heavy 
ransoms,  they  were  content  to  let  matters  go  on  quietly  at  home. 
But  that  day  was  over.  Through  the  bad  management,  if  not 
through  the  positive  treachery  of  Edmund,  Duke  of  Somerset,  the 
French  conquests  had  been  lost,  a  weak  king,  at  times  insane,  sat 
on  the  English  throne,  while  Richard,  Duke  of  York,  a  really  able 
man  and  a  descendant  of  the  Mortimers  (see  table  on  page  163), 
was,  as  many  believed,  unlawfully  excluded  from  it. 

This  fact  in  itself  would  have  furnished  a  plausible  pretext  for 
hostilities,  even  as  far  back  as  Cade’s  rising.  But  the  birth  of  a 
son2  to  Henry  (1453)  probably  gave  the  signal  for  the  outbreak, 
since  it  cut  off  all  hopes  which  Richard’s  friends  may  have  had  of 
his  peaceful  succession. 

1  “  Now  is  Mortimer  lord  of  this  city,  and  here,  sitting  upon  London  Stone,  I 
charge  and  command  that,  at  the  city’s  cost,  this  conduit  runs  nothing  but  claret 
wine  this  first  year  of  our  reign ;  and  now  it  shall  be  treason  for  any  man  to  call 
me  other  than  Lord  Mortimer.”  —  Henry  VI,  Part  II,  Act  IV,  Scene  6. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  here,  as  elsewhere  in  his  historical  plays,  the  great 
dramatist  expresses  little,  if  any,  sympathy  with  the  cause  of  the  people.  In  King 
John  he  does  not  mention  the  Great  Charter,  in  Richard  II  he  passes  over  Wat 
Tyler  without  a  word,  while  in  Henry  VI  he  mentions  Cade  only  to  ridicule  him 
and  his  movement.  The  explanation  of  this  lies,  perhaps,  in  the  fact  that  Shake¬ 
speare  lived  in  an  age  when  England  was  threatened  by  both  open  and  secret  enemies. 
The  need  of  his  time  was  a  strong,  steady  hand  at  the  helm ;  it  was  no  season  for 
reform  or  change  of  any  sort.  This  may  be  the  reason  why  he  was  silent  in  regard 
to  democratic  risings  and  demands  in  the  past. 

2  Prince  Edward.  See  genealogical  table  on  page  163,  under  “  Henry  VI.” 


1422-1461]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 


163 


352.  The  Scene  in  the  Temple  Garden.  —  Shakespeare  repre¬ 
sents  the  smouldering  feud  between  the  rival  houses  ot  Lancaster 
and  York  (both  of  whom  it  should  be  remembered  were  descend¬ 
ants  of  Edward  III)1  as  breaking  into  an  angry  quarrel  in  the 
Temple  Garden,  London,  when  Richard,  Duke  of  York,  says  :  — 

“  Let  him  that  is  a  true-born  gentleman, 

And  stands  upon  the  honor  of  his  birth, 

If  he  suppose  that  1  have  pleaded  truth, 

From  off  this  brier  pluck  a  white  rose  with  me.” 

To  this  challenge  John  Beaufort,  Duke  of  Somerset,2  a  descend-  ’ 
ant  of  the  house  of  Lancaster,  who  has  just  accused  Richard  of 
being  the  dishonored  son  of  a  traitor,  replies  :  — 


1  Table  showing  the  descendants  of  Edward  III,  with  reference  to  the  claims  of 
Lancaster  and  York  to  the  Crown  :  — 


Edward  III 


Lionel,  Duke  of 
Clarence  (3d  son) 

I 

Philippa 

I 

Roger  Mortimer 


_ I _ 

I 

John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of 
Lancaster  (4th  son) 

I  I 

Henry  IV  t  John,  Earl 
I  of  Somerset 

Henry  V 


Edmund,  Duke  of 
York  (5th  son) 

I 

Richard,  Earl  of 
Cambridge,  m. 

Anne  Morti¬ 
mer 


Edmund  Morti-  Anne  Morti¬ 
mer  (Earl  of  mer,  m.  Rich- 
March),  d.  1424  ard,  Earl  of 
Cambridge  (s. 
of  Edmund, 

Duke  of  York) 

I 

*  Richard,  Duke 
of  York 

I 

Edward  IV  (1461-14S3) 


Henry  VI  John, 
Duke 

Prince  Edward,  of  Som 
b.  1453  ;  killed  erset, 
at  battle  of  d.  1448 
Tewkesbury, 

1471 


Edmund, 
Duke  of 
Somerset 


t  John,  Earl  of  Somerset,  was  an 
illegitimate  half-brother  of  Henry 
IV's,  but  was,  in  1397,  declared 
legitimate  by  act  of  Parliament 
and  a  papal  decree. 


*  Inherited  the  title  of  Duke  of  York  from  his  father's  eldest  brother,  Edward,  Duke  of 
York,  who  died  without  issue.  • 

Richard’s  father,  the  Earl  of  Cambridge,  had  forfeited  his  title  and  estates  by  treason  ; 
but  Parliament  had  so  far  limited  the  sentence  that  his  son  was  not  thereby  debarred  from 
inheriting  his  uncle’s  rank  and  fortune. 

Richard,  Duke  of  York,  now  represented  the  direct  hereditary  line  of  succession  to  the 
crown,  while  Henry  VI  and  his  son  represented  that  established  by  Parliament  through 
acceptance  of  Henry  IV.  Compare  geneaological  table  on  page  141. 

2  John,  Duke  of  Somerset,  died  1448.  He  was  brother  of  Edmund,  Duke  of 
Somerset,  who  was  slain  at  St.  Albans,  1455. 


164  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1422-1461 

“  Let  him  that  is  no  coward,  nor  no  flatterer, 

But  dare  maintain  the  party  of  the  truth, 

Pluck  a  red  rose  from  off  this  thorn  with  me.” 

The  Earl  of  Warwick  rejoins  :  — 

“  This  brawl  to-day, 

Grown  to  this  faction  in  the  Temple-garden, 

Shall  send,  between  the  red  rose  and  the  white, 

A  thousand  souls  to  death  and  deadly  night.”1 

353.  The  Real  Object  of  the  War.  — The  war,  however,  did  not 
directly  originate  in  this  quarrel,  but  rather  in  the  strife  for  power 
between  Edmund,  Duke  of  Somerset  (John’s  brother),  and  Rich¬ 
ard,  Duke  of  York.  Each  desired  to  get  the  control  of  the 
Government,  though  at  first  neither  appears  to  have  openly  aimed 
at  the  Crown. 

During  Henry’s  attack  of  insanity  (1453),  Richard  was  ap¬ 
pointed  Protector  of  the  realm,  and  shortly  afterward  the  Duke  of 
Somerset,  the  King’s  particular  favorite  and  chief  adviser,  was 
cast  into  prison  on  the  double  charge  of  having  culpably  lost 
Normandy  and  embezzled  public  moneys. 

When  Henry  recovered  (1455),  he  released  Somerset  and 
restored  him  to  office.  Richard  protested,  and  raising  an  army 
in  the  north,  marched  toward  London.  He  met  the  royalist  forces 
at  St.  Albans ;  a  battle  ensued,  and  Somerset  was  slain. 

During  the  next  thirty  years  the  war  raged  with  more  or  less 
fury  between  the  parties  of  the  Red  Rose  (Lancaster)  and  the 
White  Rose  (York).  The  first  maintained  that  Parliament  had  the 
right  to  choose  such  king  as  they  saw  fit,  as  in  Henry  IV’s  case ; 
the  second  insisted  that  the  succession  should  be  determined  by 
strict  hereditary  descent,  as  represented  in  the  claim  of  Richard. 

But  beneath  the  surface  the  contest  was  not  for  principle,  but 
for  place  and  spoils.  The  great  nobles,  who  during  the  French 
wars  (§  340)  had  pillaged  abroad,  now  pillaged  each  other;  and 
as  England  was  neither  big  enough  nor  rich  enough  to  satisfy  the 
greed  of  all  of  them,  the  struggle  gradually  became  a  war  of 
mutual  extermination. 


Shakespeare’s  Henry  VI,  Part  I,  Act  II,  Scene  4. 


1422-1461]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM  1 65 

It  was,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  sectional  war.  Eastern  England, 
then  the  wealthiest  and  most  progressive  part  of  the  country, 
had  strongly  supported  Wycliffe  in  his  reforms  (§  306).  It  now 
espoused  the  side  of  Richard,  Duke  of  York,  who  was  believed  to 
be  friendly  to  religious  liberty,  while  the  western  counties  fought 
for  the  cause  of  Lancaster  and  the  Church.1 

354.  The  First  Battles  (1455—1460). — We  have  already 
seen  (§  353)  that  the  first  blood  was  shed  at  St.  Albans  (1455), 
where  the  Yorkists,  after  half  an  hour’s  fighting,  gained  a  com¬ 
plete  victory.2  A  similar  result  followed  at  Bloreheath,  Stafford¬ 
shire  (1459).  In  a  third  battle,  at  Northampton,3  the  Yorkists 
were  again  successful  (1460).  Henry  was  taken  prisoner,  and 
Queen  Margaret  fled  with  the  young  Prince  Edward  to  Scotland. 
Richard  now  demanded  the  crown. 

Henry  answered  with  unexpected  spirit :  “  My  father  was  king, 
his  father  also  was  king.  I  have  worn  the  crown  forty  years  from 
my  cradle  ;  you  have  all  sworn  fealty  to  me  as  your  sovereign, 
and  your  fathers  did  the  like  to  my  fathers.  How,  then,  can  my 
claim  be  disputed?”  After  a  long  controversy,  a  compromise 
was  effected.  Henry  agreed  that  if  he  were  left  in  peaceable 
possession  of  the  throne  during  his  life,  Richard  or  his  heirs 
should  succeed  him. 

355.  Battles  of  Wakefield  and  Towton  (1460-1461).  —  But 

Queen  Margaret  refused  to  see  her  son,  Prince  Edward,  thus 
tamely  set  aside.  She  raised  an  army  and  attacked  the  Yorkists. 
Richard,  whose  forces  were  inferior  to  hers/had  entrenched  him¬ 
self  in  his  castle.4  Day  after  day  Margaret  went  up  under  the 
walls  and  dared  him  to  come  out. 

At  length,  stung  by  her  taunts,  the  duke  sallied  from  his 
stronghold,  and  the  battle  of  Wakefield  was  fought  (1460). 
Margaret  was  victorious.  Richard  was  slain,  and  the  Queen,  in 
mockery  of  his  claims  to  sovereignty,  cut  off  his  head,  decked  it 

1  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  persecution  of  Wycliffe’s  followers  began  under 
Henry  IV,  the  first  Lancastrian  king.  See  §  335. 

2  For  the  battle-fields  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  see  Map  No.  11,  facing  page  174. 

3  Northampton,  Northamptonshire. 

*  Sandal  Castle,  near  Wakefield,  Yorkshire.  Towton,  also  in  Yorkshire. 


l66  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1422-1461 

with  a  paper  crown,  and  set  it  up  over  the  chief  gate  of  the  city 
of  York.  Fortune  now  changed.  The  next  year  (1461)  the 
Lancastrians  were  defeated  with  great  slaughter  at  Towton.  The 
light  spring  snow  was  crimsoned  with  the  blood  of  thirty  thou¬ 
sand  slain,  and  the  way  strewn  with  corpses  for  ten  miles  up  to 
the  walls  of  York. 

The  Earl  of  Warwick,  henceforth  popularly  known  as  “  the 
king-maker,”  now  placed  Edward,  eldest  son  of  the  late  Duke  of 
York,  on  the  throne,  with  the  title  of  Edward  IV  (§  352,  table). 
Henry  and  Margaret  fled  to  Scotland.  The  new  Government 
summoned  them  to  appear,  and  as  they  failed  to  answer,  pro¬ 
claimed  them  traitors. 

Four  years  later,  Henry  was  taken  prisoner  and  sent  to  the 
Tower  of  London.  He  may  have  been  happier  there  than 
battling  for  his  throne.  He  was  not  born  to  reign,  but  rather, 
as  Shakespeare  makes  him  say,  to  lead  a  shepherd’s  life,  watch¬ 
ing  his  flocks,  until  the  peacefully  flowing  years  should  — 

“  Bring  white  hairs  unto  a  quiet  grave.”  1 

356.  Summary. — The  history  of  the  period  is  one  of  loss. 
The  brilliant  French  conquests  of  Henry  V  slipped  from  the 
nerveless  hands  of  his  son,  leaving  France  practically  independ¬ 
ent.  The  elective  franchise  had  been  restricted.  The  House 
of  Commons  had  ceased  to  be  democratic  even  in  a  moderate 
degree.  Its  members  were  all  property-holders  elected  by 
property-holders.  Cade’s  rebellion  was  the  sign  of  political 
discontent  and  the  forerunner  of  civil  war. 

The  contests  of  the  parties  of  the  Red  and  the  White  Roses 
drenched  England’s  fair  fields  with  the  best  blood  of  her  own 
sons.  The  reign  ends  with  King  Henry  in  prison,  Queen  Mar¬ 
garet  and  Prince  Edward  fugitives,  and  the  Yorkist,  Edward  IV, 
placed  on  the  throne  by  the  help  of  the  powerful  Earl  of  Warwick. 

1  See  Henry's  soliloquy  on  the  field  of  Towton,  beginning, — 

“  O  God  !  methinks  it  were  a  happy  life 
To  be  no  better  than  a  homely  swain.” 

Shakespeare,  Heyiry  VI,  Part  III,  Act  II,  Scene  5. 


1461-1483]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 


167 


EDWARD  IV  (House  of  York,  White  Rose) — 1461-1483 

357.  Continuation  of  the  War ;  Barnet ;  Death  of  Henry ; 
Tewkesbury  (1471).  —  During  the  whole  of  Edward’s  reign  the 
war  went  on  with  varying  success,  but  unvarying  ferocity,  until  at 
last  neither  side  would  ask  or  give  quarter.  Some  years  after  the 
accession  of  the  new  sovereign  the  Earl  of  Warwick  quarrelled  with 
him,  thrust  him  from  the  throne,  and  restored  Henry  VI  (§  355). 

But  a  few  months  later,  at  the  battle  of  Barnet  (1471),  War¬ 
wick,  who  was  “  the  last  of  the  great  barons,”  was  killed,  and 
Henry,  who  had  been  led  back  to  the  Tower  1  again,  died  one  of 
those  “  conveniently  sudden  deaths  ”  which  were  then  so  common. 

The  heroic  Queen  Margaret  (§§  347,  355),  however,  would  not 
give  up  the  contest  in  behalf  of  her  son’s  claim  to  the  crown. 
But  fate  was  against  her.  A  few  weeks  after  the  battle  of  Barnet 2 
her  army  was  utterly  defeated  at  Tewkesbury  (1471),  her  son 
Edward  slain,  and  the  Queen  herself  taken  prisoner. 

She  was  eventually  released  on  the  payment  of  a  large  ransom, 
and  returned  to  France,  where  she  died  broken-hearted  in  her 
native  Anjou,  prophesying  that  the  contest  would  go  on  until 
the  Red  Rose,  representing  her  party,  should  get  a  still  deeper 
dye  from  the  blood  of  her  enemies.8 

358.  The  Introduction  of  Printing,  1477.  —  But  an  event 
was  at  hand  of  greater  importance  than  any  question  of  crowns 
or  parties,  though  then  none  was  wise  enough  to  see  its  real 
significance.  William  Caxton,  a  London  merchant,  had  learned 
the  new  art  of  printing  at  Bruges  in  Flanders.  He  now  returned 
to  his  native  country  and  set  up  a  small  press  within  the  grounds 
of  Westminster  Abbey. 

There,  at  the  sign  of  a  shield  bearing  a  red  pale,4  he  advertised 

1  The  Tower  of  London,  built  by  William  the  Conqueror,  as  a  fortress  to  over¬ 
awe  the  city,  became  later  both  a  royal  palace  and  a  prison  of  state.  It  is  now  used 
as  a  citadel,  armory,  and  depository  for  the  crown  jewels. 

2  Barnet,  about  eleven  miles  northwest  of  London,  Hertfordshire.  Tewkesbury, 
near  Gloucester,  Gloucestershire.  See  Map  No.  1 1 ,  facing  page  174. 

3  See  Scott’s  Anne  of  Geierstein,  Chapter  XXX. 

4  Pale :  a  perpendicular  band  on  a  shield ;  such  signs  were  then  commonly  used 
by  the  Flemish  printers. 


l68  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1461-1483 

his  wares  as  “  good  chepe.”  He  was  not  only  printer,  but  trans¬ 
lator  and  editor.  Edward  gave  him  some  royal  patronage.  He 
paid  liberally  for  work  which  not  long  before  the  clergy  in  France 
had  condemned  as  a  black  art  emanating  from  the  devil.  Many, 
too,  of  the  English  clergy  regarded  it  with  no  very  friendly  eye, 
since  it  threatened  to  destroy  the  copying  trade,  of  which  the 
monks  had  well-nigh  a  monopoly. 

The  first  printed  book  which  Caxton  is  known  to  have  pub¬ 
lished  in  England  was  a  small  volume  entitled  “The  Sayings  of 
the  Philosophers,”  1 4  7  7 -1  This  venture  was  followed  in  due 
time  by  Chaucer’s  “  Canterbury  Tales,”  and  whatever  other 
poetry,  history,  or  classics  seemed  worthy  of  preservation ; 
making  in  all  nearly  a  hundred  distinct  works  comprising  more- 
than  eighteen  thousand  volumes. 

Up  to  this  time  a  book  of  any  kind  was  a  luxury,  laboriously 
“  written  by  the  few  for  the  few  ”  ;  but  from  this  date  literature 
of  all  sorts  was  destined  to  multiply  and  fill  the  earth  with  many 
leaves  and  some  good  fruit. 

Caxton’s  patrons,  though  few,  w7ere  choice,  and  when  one  of 
them,  the  Earl  of  Worcester,  was  beheaded  in  the  wars,  he  said 
of  him,  “  The  axe  did  then  cut  off  more  learning  than  was  left  in 
all  the  heads  of  the  surviving  lords.” 

Recently  a  memorial  window  has  been  placed  in  St.  Margaret’s 
Church  within  the  abbey  grounds,  as  a  tribute  to  the  man  wrho, 
while  England  was  red  with  slaughter,  introduced  “  the  art  pre¬ 
servative  of  all  arts,”  and  preservative  of  liberty  no  less2 * * * *  (§  374). 

1  “  The  dictes  or  sayengis  of  the  philosophres.  enprynted  by  me  william  Caxton 
at  westmestre,  the  year  of  our  lord  MCCCCLxxvii.” 

It  has  no  title-page,  but  ends  as  above.  A  copy  is  preserved  in  the  British 
Museum.  The  Game  and  Play  of  the  Chess  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  been 
published  a  year  or  two  earlier,  but  as  the  book  has  neither  printer’s  name,  place  of 
publication,  nor  date,  the  time  of  its  issue  remains  wholly  conjectural. 

2  “  Lord  !  taught  by  thee,  when  Caxton  bade 

His  silent  words  forever  speak ; 

A  grave  for  tyrants  then  was  made, 

Then  crack’d  the  chain  which  yet  shall  break.” 

Ebenezer  Elliott,  Hymn  for  the  Printers' 

Gathering  at  Sheffield,  jSjj. 


THE  CAXTON  MEMORIAL  WINDOW  (St.  Margaret’s  Church,  London) 


1461-14S3]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 


169 


359.  King  Edward’s  Character. — The  King,  however,  cared 
more  for  his  pleasures  than  for  literature  or  the  welfare  of  the 
nation.  His  chief  aim  was  to  beg,  borrow,  or  extort  money  to 
waste  in  dissipation.  The  loans  which  he  forced  his  subjects  to 
grant,  and  which  were  seldom,  if  ever,  repaid,  went  under  the 
name  of  “benevolences.”  But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  those  who 
furnished  them  were  in  no  very  benevolent  frame  of  mind  at 
the  time. 

Exception  may  perhaps  be  made  of  the  rich  and  elderly  widow, 
who  was  so  pleased  with  the  King’s  handsome  face  that  she  will¬ 
ingly  handed  him  ^20  (a  large  sum  in  those  days)  ;  and  when 
the  jovial  monarch  gallantly  kissed  her  out  of  gratitude  for  her 
generosity,  she  at  once,  like  a  true  and  loyal  subject,  doubled  the 
donation.  Edward’s  course  of  life  was  not  conducive  to  length 
of  days,  even  if  the  times  had  favored  a  long  reign.  He  died 
early,  leaving  a  son,  Prince  Edward,  to  succeed  him. 

360.  Summary. — The  reign  was  marked  by  the  continuation 
of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  the  death  of  King  Henry  VI  and  of  his 
son,  with  the  return  of  Queen  Margaret  to  France.  The  most 
important  event  outside  of  the  war  was  the  introduction  of  the 
printing-press  by  William  Caxton. 


EDWARD  V  (House  of  York,  White  Rose)  1483 

361.  Gloucester  appointed  Protector.  —  Prince  Edward,  heir 
to  the  throne,  was  a  lad  of  twelve.  He  was  placed  under  the 
guardianship  of  his  ambitious  and  unscrupulous  uncle,  Richard, 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  who  had  been  appointed  Lord  Protector  of 
the  realm  until  the  boy  should  become  of  age.  Richard  protected 
his  young  nephew  as  a  wolf  would  a  lamb. 

He  met  the  prince  coming  up  to  London  from  Ludlow  Castle, 
Shropshire,  attended  by  his  half-brother,  Sir  Richard  Grey,  and 
his  uncle,  Lord  Rivers.  Under  the  pretext  that  Edward  would 
be  safer  in  the  Tower  of  London  than  at  Westminster  Palace, 
Richard  sent  the  prince  there,  and  soon  found  means  for  having 
his  kinsmen,  Grey  and  Rivers,  executed. 


170  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


[H83 


362.  Murder  of  Lord  Hastings  and  the  Two  Princes.  —  Richard 

shortly  after  showed  his  object.  Lord  Hastings  was  one  of  the 
council  who  had  voted  to  make  the  duke  Protector,  but  he  was 
unwilling  to  help  him  in  his  plot  to  seize  the  crown.  While  at 
the  council-table  in  the  Tower  Richard  suddenly  started  up  and 
accused  Hastings  of  treason,  saying,  “  By  St.  Paul,  I  will  not  to 
dinner  till  I  see  thy  head  off  !  ”  Hastings  was  dragged  out  of  the 
room,  and  without  either  trial  or  examination  was  beheaded  on  a 
stick  of  timber  on  the  Tower  green. 

The  way  was  now  clear  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  duke’s 
purpose.  The  queen-mother  (Elizabeth  Woodville,  widow  of 
Edward  IV)  took  her  younger  son  and  his  sisters,  one  of  whom 
was  the  Princess  Elizabeth  of  York,  and  fled  for  protection  to 
the  sanctuary  (§  131)  of  Westminster  Abbey,  where,  refusing  all 
comfort,  “  she  sat  alone,  low  on  the  rushes.”  1  Finally,  Richard 
half  persuaded  and  half  forced  the  unhappy  woman  to  give  up 
her  second  son  to  his  tender  care. 

With  bitter  weeping  and  dread  presentiments  of  evil  she  parted 
from  him,  saying  :  “  Farewell,  mine  own  sweet  son  !  God  send 
you  good  keeping  !  Let  me  kiss  you  once  ere  you  go,  for  God 
knoweth  when  we  shall  kiss  together  again.”  That  was  the  last 
time  she  saw  the  lad.  He  and  Edward,  his  elder  brother,  were  f 
soon  after  murdered  in  the  Tower,  and  Richard  rose  by  that  l 
double  crime  to  the  height  he  coveted. 

363.  Summary.  —  Edward’s  nominal  reign  of  less  than  three 
months  must  be  regarded  simply  as  the  time  during  which  his 
uncle,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  perfected  his  plot  for  seizing  the 
crown  by  the  successive  murders  of  Rivers,  Grey,  Hastings,  and 
the  two  young  princes. 

RICHARD  III  (House  of  York,  White  Rose)  — 1483-1485 

364.  Richard’s  Accession ;  he  promises  Financial  Reform.  —  j 

Richard  used  the  preparations  which  had  been  made  for  the  mur¬ 
dered  Prince  Edward’s  coronation  for  his  own.  He  probably 


1  “  On  the  rushes  ”  :  on  the  stone  floor  covered  with  rushes. 


1483-1485]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM  1 7 1 

gained  over  an  influential  party  by  promises  of  financial  reform. 
In  their  address  to  him  at  his  accession  Parliament  said,  “  Cer¬ 
tainly  we  be  determined  rather  to  adventure  and  commit  us  to  the 
peril  of  our  lives  .  .  .  than  to  live  in  such  thraldom  and  bondage 
as  we  have  lived  long  time  heretofore,  oppressed  and  injured  by 
extortions  and  new  impositions,  against  the  laws  of  God  and  man, 
and  the  liberty,  old  policy  and  laws  of  this  realm,  wherein  every 
Englishman  is  inherited.”  1 

365.  Richard’s  Character.  — Several  attempts  have  been  made 
of  late  years  to  defend  the  King  against  the  odium  heaped 
upon  him  by  the  older  historians.  But  these  well-meant  efforts 
to  prove  him  less  black  than  tradition  painted  him  are  answered 
by  the  fact  that  his  memory  was  thoroughly  hated  by  those  who 
knew  him  best.  No  one  of  the  age  when  he  lived  thought  of 
vindicating  his  character.  He  was  called  “a  hypocrite  ”  and  a 
hunchback. 

We  must  believe  then,  until  it  is  clearly  proved  to  the  contrary, 
that  the  last  and  worst  of  the  Yorkist  kings  was  what  common 
report  and  Shakespeare  have  together  represented  him,  —  dis¬ 
torted  in  figure,  and  with  ambition  so  unrestrained  that  the  words 
the  poet  puts  into  his  mouth  may  have  been  really  his  :  — 

“  Then,  since  the  heavens  have  shap’d  my  body  so, 

Let  hell  make  crookt  my  mind  to  answer  it.”  2 

Personally  he  was  as  brave  as  he  was  cruel  and  unscrupulous. 
He  promoted  some  reforms.  He  abolished  “benevolences” 
(§  359 ) ,  at  least  for  a  time,  and  he  encouraged  Caxton  (§  358) 
in  his  great  work. 

366.  Revolts  ;  Buckingham  ;  Henry  Tudor.  —  During  his  short 
reign  of  two  years,  several  revolts  broke  out,  but  came  to  nothing. 
The  Duke  o'f  Buckingham,  who  had  helped  Richard  to  the  throne, 
turned  against  him  because  he  did  not  get  the  rewards  he  expected. 
He  headed  a  revolt ;  but  as  his  men  deserted  him,  he  fell  into  the 
King’s  hands,  and  the  executioner  speedily  did  the  rest. 

1  Taswell-Langmead,  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

2  Henry  VI,  Part  III,  Act  V,  Scene  6. 


172  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1483-1485 


Finally,  a  more  formidable  enemy  arose.  Before  he  gained  the 
crown  Richard  had  cajoled  or  compelled  the  unfortunate  Anne 
Neville,  widow  of  that  Prince  Edward,  son  of  Henry  VI,  who  was 
slain  at  Tewkesbury  (§  357),  into  becoming  his  wife.  She  might 
have  said  with  truth,  “Small  joy  have  I  in  being  England’s 
Queen.”  The  King  intended  that  his  son  should  marry  Elizabeth 
of  York  (§  362),  sister  to  the  two  princes  he  had  murdered  in 
the  Tower.  By  so  doing  he  would  strengthen  his  position  and 
secure  the  succession  to  the  throne  to  his  own  family.  But 
Richard’s  son  shortly  after  died,  and  the  King,  having  mysteriously 
got  rid  of  his  wife,  now  made  up  his  mind  to  marry  Elizabeth 
himself. 

The  princess,  however,  was  already  betrothed  to  Henry  Tudor, 
Earl  of  Richmond,  the  engagement  having  been  effected  during 
that  sad  winter  which  she  and  her  mother  spent  in  sanctuary  at 
Westminster  Abbey,  watched  by  Richard’s  soldiers  to  prevent  their 
escape  (§  362).  The  Earl  of  Richmond,  who  was  an  illegitimate 
descendant  of  the  house  of  Lancaster,  had  long  been  waiting  on 
the  continent  for  an  opportunity  to  invade  England  and  claim 
the  crown. 

Owing  to  the  enmity  of  Edward  IV  and  Richard  toward  him, 
the  earl  had  been,  as  he  himself  said,  “  either  a  fugitive  or  a  cap¬ 
tive  since  he  was  five  years  old.”  He  now  determined  to  remain 
so  no  longer.  He  landed  (1485)  with  a  force  at  Milford  Haven, 
in  Wales,  where  he  felt  sure  of  a  welcome,  since  his  paternal 
ancestors  were  Welsh.1 

Advancing  through  Shrewsbury,  he  met  Richard  on  Bosworth 
Field,  in  Leicestershire. 

1  Descent  of  Henry  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond:  — 

Henry  V  (House  of  Lancaster),  married  Catharine  of  France,  who  after  his 
death  married  Owen  Tudor,  a  Welshman  of  Anglesea 

Henry  VI  | 

Edmund  Tudor  (Earl  of  Richmond),  married 
Margaret  Beaufort,  a  descendant  of  John  of  Gaunt, 

Duke  of  Lancaster  [she  was  granddaughter  of 
John,  Earl  of  Somerset  ;  see  page  163] 

Henry  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond  (also 
called  Henry  of  Lancaster) 


483-1485]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 


173 


367.  Battle  of  Bosworth  Field  (1485). — There  the  decisive 
battle  was  fought  between  the  great  rival  houses  of  York  and  Lan¬ 
caster.  Richard  went  out  the  evening  before  to  look  over  the 
ground.  He  found  one  of  his  sentinels  slumbering  at  his  post. 
Drawing  his  sword,  he  stabbed  him  to  the  heart,  saying,  “  I  found 
him  asleep  and  I  leave  him  asleep.”  Going  back  to  his  tent,  he 
passed  a  restless  night.  The  ghosts  of  all  his  murdered  victims 
seemed  to  pass  in  procession  before  him.  Such  a  sight  may  well, 
as  Shakespeare  says,  have  “  struck  terror  to  the  soul  of  Richard.”  1 

At  sunrise  the  battle  began.  Before  the  attack,  Richard,  it 
is  said,  confessed  to  his  troops  the  murder  of  his  two  nephews 
(§  362),  but  pleaded  that  he  had  atoned  for  the  crime  with  “  many 
salt  tears  and  long  penance.”  It  is  probable  that  had  it  not 
been  for  the  treachery  of  some  of  his  adherents  the  King  would 
have  won  the  day. 

When  he  saw  that  he  was  deserted  by  those  on  whose  help  he 
had  counted,  he  uttered  the  cry  of  “  Treason  !  treason  !  ”  and 
dashed  forward  into  the  thick  of  the  fight.  With  the  fury  of 
despair  he  hewed  his  way  into  the  very  presence  of  the  earl,  and 
killing  the  standard-bearer,  flung  the  Lancastrian  banner  to  the 
ground.  But  he  could  go  no  further.  Numbers  overpowered 
him,  and  he  fell. 

During  the  battle  he  had  worn  his  crown.  After  all  was  over, 
it  was  found  hanging  on  a  hawthorn-bush2  and  handed  to  the 
victor,  who  placed  it  on  his  own  head.  The  army  then  gathered 
round  Henry  thus  crowned,  and  moved  by  one  impulse  joined  in 
the  exultant  hymn  of  the  Te  Deum.3  Thus  ended  the  last  of  the 
Plantagenet  line  (§  209).  “Whatever  their  faults  or  crimes,  there 
was  not  a  coward  among  them.”  4 

368.  End  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  (1485) ;  their  Effects.  — 
With  Bosworth  Field  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  ceased.  During  the 

1  Shakespeare’s  Richard  III,  Act  V,  Scene  3. 

2  An  ancient  stained-glass  window  in  Henry  VIl’s  Chapel  (Westminster  Abbey) 
commemorates  this  incident. 

3  “  Te  Deum  laudamus”  (We  praise  thee,  O  God) :  a  Roman  Catholic  hymn  of 
thanksgiving,  now  sung  in  English  in  the  Episcopal  and  other  churches. 

4  Stubbs’  Constitutional  History  of  England. 


174  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1483-1485 


thirty  years  they  had  continued,  fourteen  pitched  battles  had 
been  fought,  in  a  single  one  of  which  (Towton)  (§  355)  more 
Englishmen  lost  their  lives  than  in  the  whole  course  of  the  wars 
with  France  during  the  preceding  forty  years.  In  all,  eighty 
princes  of  the  blood  royal  and  more  than  half  of  the  nobility  of 
the  realm  perished. 

Of  those  who  escaped  death  by  the  sword,  many  died  on  the 
scaffold.  The  remnant  who  were  saved  had  hardly  a  better  fate. 
They  left  their  homes  only  to  suffer  in  foreign  lands.  A  writer  of 
that  day  1  says  :  “  I,  myself,  saw  the  Duke  of  Exeter,  the  King 
of  England’s  brother-in-law,  walking  barefoot  in  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy’s  train,  and  begging  his  bread  from  door  to  door.” 

Every  individual  of  two  families  of  the  great  houses  of  Som¬ 
erset  and  Warwick  fell  either  on  the  field  or  under  the  executioner’s 
axe.  In  tracing  family  pedigrees  it  is  startling  to  see  how  Often 
the  record  reads,  “killed  at  St.  Albans,”  “slain  at  Towton,” 
“  beheaded  after  the  battle  of  Wakefield,”  and  the  like.2 

When  the  contest  closed,  the  feudal  baronage  was  broken  up 
(§§  160,  i6r,  200).  In  a  majority  of  cases  the  estates  of  the 
nobles  either  fell  to  the  Crown  for  lack  of  heirs,  or  they  were 
fraudulently  seized  by  the  King’s  officers.  Thus  the  greater  part 
of  the  wealthiest  and  most  powerful  aristocracy  in  the  world 
disappeared  so  completely  that  they  ceased  to  have  either  a  local 
habitation  or  a  name. 

But  the  elements  of  civil  discord  at  last  exhausted  themselves. 
Bosworth  Field  was  a  turning-point  in  English  history.  When  the 
sun  went  down,  it  saw  the  termination  of  the  desperate  struggle 
between  the  White  Rose  of  York  and  the  Red  Rose  of  Lancaster; 
when  it  ushered  in  a  new  day,  it  shone  also  on  a  new  king,  who 
introduced  a  new  social  and  political  period. 

369.  Summary.  — The  importance  of  Richard’s  reign  is  that 
it  marks  the  close  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  Those  thirty  years 
of  civil  strife  destroyed  the  predominating  influence  of  the  feudal 
barons.  Henry  Tudor  (§  366)  now  becomes  the  central  figure 
and  will  ascend  the  throne. 


-1  See  the  Paston  Letters. 


2  Guest’s  Lectures  on  English  History. 


1399-H85]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 


175 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  LANCASTRIAN  AND  YORKIST 
PERIOD  (1399-1485) 

I.  GOVERNMENT. - II.  RELIGION. - III.  MILITARY  AFFAIRS.  —  IV. 

LITERATURE,  LEARNING,  AND  ART. - V.  GENERAL  INDUSTRY 

AND  COMMERCE.  - VI.  MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND  CUSTOMS. 

GOVERNMENT 

370.  Parliament  and  the  Royal  Succession.  —  The  period  began 
with  the  parliamentary  recognition  of  the  claim  to  the  crown  of 
Henry,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  son  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lan¬ 
caster,  fourth  son  of  Edward  III.  By  this  act  the  claim  of  Edmund 
Mortimer,  a  descendant  of  Edward  III  by  his  third  son,  Lionel,  Duke 
of  Clarence,  was  deliberately  set  aside,  and  this  change  of  the  order 
of  succession  eventually  furnished  an  excuse  for  civil  war.1 

371.  Disfranchisement  of  Electors;  Benevolences. — Under  Henry  VI 
a  property  qualification  was  established  by  act  of  Parliament 
which  cut  off  all  persons  from  voting  for  county  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons  who  did  not  have  an  income  of  forty  shillings 
(say  ^40,  or  $200,  in  modern  money)  from  freehold  land.  County 
elections,  the  statute  said,  had  “  of  late  been  made  by  a  very  great, 
outrageous,  and  excessive  number  of  people  ...  of  which  the  most 
part  were  people  of  small  substance  and  of  no  value.” 

Later,  candidates  for  the  House  of  Commons  from  the  counties 
were  required  to  be  gentlemen  by  birth,  and  to  have  an  income 
of  not  less  than  £ 20  (or  say  ^400,  or  $2000,  in  modern  money). 
Though  the  tendency  of  such  laws  was  to  make  the  House  of  Com¬ 
mons  represent  property-holders  rather  than  the  freemen  as  a  body, 
yet  no  apparent  change  seems  to  have  taken  place  in  the  class  of 
county  members  chosen. 

Eventually,  however,  these  and  other  interferences  with  free  elec¬ 
tions  caused  the  rebellion  of  Jack  Cade,  in  which  the  insurgents 

1  Before  the  accession  of  Henry  III,  Parliament  made  choice  of  any  one  of  the 
king’s  sons  whom  they  considered  best  fitted  to  rule.  After  that  time  it  was  under¬ 
stood  that  the  king’s  eldest  son  should  be  chosen  to  succeed  him;  or  in  case  of  his 
death  during  the  lifetime  of  his  father,  the  eldest  son  of  the  eldest  son,  and  so  for¬ 
ward  in  that  line.  The  action  taken  by  Parliament  in  favor  of  Henry  IV  was  a 
departure  from  that  principle,  and  a  reassertion  of  its  ancient  right  to  choose  any 
descendant  of  the  royal  family  it  deemed  best.  See  genealogical  table,  §  309. 


1 76  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1399-1485 

demanded  the  right  to  choose  such  representatives  as  they  saw  fit. 
But  the  movement  appears  to  have  had  no  practical  result.  During 
the  civil  war  which  ensued,  the  King  (Edward  IV)  compelled  wealthy 
subjects  to  lend  him  large  sums  (seldom,  if  ever,  repaid)  called 
“benevolences.”  Richard  III  abolished  this  obnoxious  system,  but 
afterward  revived  it,  and  it  became  conspicuously  hateful  under  his 
successor  in  the  next  period. 

Another  great  grievance  was  Purveyance.  By  it  the  king’s  pur¬ 
veyors  had  the  right  to  seize  provisions  and  means  of  transportation 
for  the  king  and  his  hundreds  of  attendants  whenever  they  journeyed 
through  the  country  on  a  “  royal  progress.”  The  price  offered  by  the 
purveyors  was  always  much  below  the  real  value  of  what  was  taken, 
and  frequently  even  that  was  not  paid.  Purveyance,  which  had 
existed  from  the  earliest  times,  was  not  finally  abolished  until  1660. 

RELIGION 

372.  Suppression  of  Heresy.  —  Under  Henry  IV  the  first  act  was 
passed  by  Lords  and  clergy  (with  the  assent  of  the  House  of  Commons) 
punishing  heretics  by  burning  at  the  stake,  and  the  first  martyr 
suffered  in  that  reign.  Later,  the  Lollards,  or  followers  of  Wycliffe, 
who  appear  in  many  cases  to  have  been  socialists  as  well  as  religious 
reformers,  were  punished  by  imprisonment,  and  occasionally  with 
death.  The  whole  number  of  martyrs,  however,  was  but  small. 

MILITARY  AFFAIRS 

373.  Armor  and  Arms.  —  The  armor  of  the  period  was  made  of 
steel  plate,  fitting  and  completely  covering  the  body.  It  was  often 
inlaid  with  gold  and  elegantly  ornamented.  Firearms  had  not  yet 
superseded  the  old  weapons.  Cannon  were  in  use,  and  also  clumsy  1 
hand-guns  fired  with  a  match. 

The  long-bow  continued  to  be  the  chief  arm  of  the  foot-soldiers, 
and  was  used  with  great  dexterity  and  fatal  effect.  Targets  were  set 
up  by  law  in  every  parish,  and  the  yeomen  were  required  to  practise 
at  contests  in  archery  frequently.  The  principal  wars  were  the  civil 
wars  and  those  with  France. 

LITERATURE,  LEARNING,  AND  ART 

374.  Introduction  of  Printing  ;  Books.  —  The  art  of  printing  was 
introduced  into  England  about  1477  by  Caxton,  a  London  merchant. 


1399-H85]  SELF-DESTRUCTION  OF  FEUDALISM 


I  77 


Up  to  that  time  all  books  had  been  written  on  either  parchment  or 
paper,  at  an  average  rate  of  about  fifty  cents  per  page  in  modern 
money.  The  age  was  not  favorable  to  literature,  and  produced  no 
great  writers.  But  Caxton  edited  and  published  a  large  number  of 
works,  many  of  which  he  translated  from  the  French  and  Latin. 

The  two  books  which  throw  most  light  on  the  history  of  the  times 
are  the  Sir  John  Paston  Letters  (1424-1506),  and  a  work  by  Chief 
Justice  Fortescue,  on  government,  intended  for  the  use  of  Prince 
Edward  (slain  at  Tewkesbury).  The  latter  is  remarkable  for  its  bold 
declaration  that  the  king  “  has  the  delegation  of  power  from  the  peo¬ 
ple,  and  he  has  no  just  claims  to  any  other  power  than  this.”  The 
chief  justice  also  praises  the  courage  of  his  countrymen,  and  declares 
with  honest  pride  that  “  more  Englishmen  are  hanged  in  England  in 
one  year  for  robbery  and  manslaughter  than  are  hanged  in  France  in 
seven  years.” 

375.  Education.  —  Henry  VI  took  a  deep  interest  in  education,  and 
founded  the  great  public  school  of  Eton,  which  ranks  next  in  age  to 
that  of  Winchester.  The  money  for  its  endowment  was  obtained  by 
the  appropriation  of  the  revenues  of  alien  or  foreign  monasteries 
which  had  been  erected  in  England,  and  which  were  confiscated  by 
Henry  V.  The  King  watched  the  progress  of  the  building  from  the 
windows  of  Windsor  Castle,  and  to  supplement  the  course  of  educa¬ 
tion  to  be  given  there,  he  furthermore  erected  and  endowed  the 
magnificent  King’s  College,  Cambridge. 

376.  Architecture.  —  A  new  development  of  Gothic  architecture 
occurred  during  this  period,  the  Decorated  giving  place  to  the  Per¬ 
pendicular.  The  latter  derives  its  name  from  the  perpendicular 
divisions  of  the  lights  in  the  arches  of  the  windows.  It  marks  the 
final  period  of  the  Gothic  or  Pointed  style,  and  is  noted  for  the 
exquisite  carved  work  of  its  ceilings.  King’s  College  Chapel,  Cam¬ 
bridge,  St.  George’s  Chapel,  Windsor,  and  Henry  VII’s  Chapel  (built 
in  the  next  reign),  connected  with  Westminster  Abbey,  are  among 
the  most  celebrated  examples  of  this  style  of  architecture,  which  is 
peculiar  to  England. 

The  mansions  of  the  nobility  at  this  period  exhibited  great  elegance. 
Crosby  Hall,  London,  at  one  time  the  residence  of  Richard  III,  and 
still  standing,  is  a  fine  specimen  of  the  “  Inns,”  as  they  were  called, 
of  the  great  families  and  wealthy  knights. 


178  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1399-1485 


GENERAL  INDUSTRY  AND  COMMERCE 

377.  Agriculture  and  Trade.  —  Notwithstanding  the  Civil  Wars  of 
the  Roses,  agriculture  was  prosperous,  and  foreign  trade  largely 
increased.  The  latter  was  well  represented  by  Sir  Richard  Whit¬ 
tington,  thrice  mayor  of  London,  who,  according  to  tradition,  lent 
Henry  V  large  sums  of  money,  and  then  at  an  entertainment  which  he 
gave  to  the  King  and  Queen  in  his  city  mansion,  generously  cancelled 
the  debt  by  throwing  the  bonds  into  the  open  sandal-wood  fire. 

Goldsmiths  from  Lombardy  had  now  settled  in  London  in  such 
numbers  as  to  give  the  name  of  Lombard  Street  to  the  quarter  the) 
occupied.  They  succeeded  the  Jews  in  the  business  of  money-lending 
and  banking,  and  Lombard  Street  still  remains  famous  for  its  bankers 
and  brokers. 


MODES  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND  CUSTOMS 

378.  Dress.  —  Great  sums  were  spent  on  dress  by  both  sexes,  and 
the  courtiers’  doublets,  or  jackets,  were  of  the  most  costly  silks  and 
velvets,  elaborately  puffed  and  slashed.  During  the  latter  part  of  the 
period  the  pointed  shoes,  which  had  formerly  been  of  prodigious 
length,  suddenly  began  to  grow  broad,  with  such  rapidity  that  Par¬ 
liament  passed  a  law  limiting  the  width  of  the  toes  to  six  inches. 

At  the  same  time  the  court  ladies  adopted  the  fashion  of  wearing 
horns  as  huge  in  proportion  as  the  noblemen’s  shoes.  The  Govern¬ 
ment  tried  legislating  them  down,  and  the  clergy  fulminated  a  solemn 
curse  against  them  ;  but  fashion  was  more  powerful  than  Church  and 
Parliament  combined,  and  horns  and  hoofs  came  out  triumphant. 


1485-1509] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


179 


SECTION  VIII 


“  One-half  her  soil  has  walked  the  rest 
In  heroes,  martyrs,  poets,  sages.” 

O.  W.  Holmes. 

POLITICAL  REACTION— ABSOLUTISM  OF  THE  CROWN 
—  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  AND 
THE  NEW  LEARNING 

CROWN  or  POPE? 

House  of  Tudor  (1485-1603) 

Henry  VII,  1485-1509.  Edward  VI,  1547-1553. 

Henry  VIII,  1509-1547.  Mary,  1553-155S. 

Elizabeth,  1558-1603. 

379.  Union  of  the  Houses  of  Lancaster  and  York.  —  Before 
leaving  the  continent  Henry  Tudor  (§  366)  had  promised  the 
Yorkist  party  that  he  would  marry  Elizabeth,  eldest  daughter 
of  Edward  IV  (§  380,  table),  and  sister  to  the  young  princes 
murdered  by  Richard  III.  Such  a  marriage  would  unite  the 
rival  houses  of  Lancaster  and  York,  and  thus  put  an  end  to  the 
civil  war. 

A  few  months  after  the  new  King’s  accession  the  wedding  was 
duly  celebrated,  and  in  the  beautiful  east  window  of  stained  glass 
in  Henry  VII ’s  Chapel,  Westminster  Abbey,  the  Roses  are  seen 
joined  ;  so  that,  as  the  quaint  verse  of  that  day  says  :  — 

“Both  roses  flourish  —  red  and  white  — 

In  love  and  sisterly  delight; 

The  two  that  were  at  strife  are  blended, 

And  all  old  troubles  now  are  ended.” 


ISO  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1485-1509 


Peace  came  from  the  union,  but  it  was  peace  interrupted  by 
insurrections.1 

380.  Condition  of  the  Country;  Power  of  the  Crown.  —  Henry, 
it  is  said,  had  his  claim  to  the  throne  printed  by  Caxton,  and  dis¬ 
tributed  broadcast  over  the  country  (§  358).  It  was  the  first 
political  appeal  to  the  people  made  through  the  press,  and  was 
a  sign  of  the  new  period  upon  which  English  history  had  entered. 
Since  Caxton  began  his  work,  the  kingdom  had  undergone  a  most 
momentous  change. 

The  great  nobles,  like  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  were,  with  few 
exceptions,  dead.  Their  estates  were  confiscated,  their  thousands 
of  followers  either  buried  on  the  battle-field  or  dispersed  through¬ 
out  the  land  (§  368).  The  small  number  of  titled  families  remain¬ 
ing  was  no  longer  to  be  feared.  The  nation  itself,  though  it  had 
taken  comparatively  little  part  in  the  war,  was  weary  of  bloodshed, 
and  ready  for  peace  on  any  terms. 

The  accession  of  the  Welsh  house  of  Tudor  marks  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  a  long  period  of  well-nigh  absolute  royal  power.  The 
nobility  were  too  weak  to  place  any  check  on  the  King.  The 


1  Origin  of  the  House  of  Tudor 
Edward  III 
3  4  I 


r~ 

Edward, 
(the  Black 
Prince) 

I 

Richard  II 


1 

William, 


- i 

Lionel,  Duke 
of  Clarence, 
from  whom 
descended  in 
a  direct  line  in 
the  fourth  gen¬ 
eration  *Rich- 
ard,  Duke 
of  York 


John  of  Gaunt, 

Duke  of  Lan¬ 
caster 

1 

Henry  IV 


Edmund,  Duke  of  York 

I 


1 

Edward,  Duke 
of  York,  no  is¬ 
sue 


Edward  IV 

L 


1 - n - n  „ 

t Edward  V  t Richard,  Elizabeth 

Duke  of  York  of  York, 

m.  Henry  V 1 1 
(of  Lancaster) 


Richard,  Earl  of 
Cambridge,  m. 
Anne  Mortimer, 
great-granddaughter 
of  Lionel,  Duke  of 
Henry  V  (Catharine,  his  widow,  Clarence;  their  son 
married  was  Richard, 

—  |  Henry  VI  Owen  Tudor,  Duke  of  York 

Richard  III  a  Welsh  gentleman) 

Edmund  Tudor,  Earl  of  Rich¬ 
mond,  m.  Margaret  Beaufort,  a 
descendant  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke 
of  Lancaster.  See  pages  163,  172 


I 


Henry  (Tudor)  VII  (formerly 
Earl  of  Richmond),  m.  Elizabeth 
Of  York,  thus  uniting  the  Houses  of 
Lancaster  (Red  Rose)  and  York 
(White  Rose)  in  the  new  royal 
House  of  Tudor 

*  Inherited  the  title  Duke  of  York  from  his  uncle  Edward.  See  No.  5. 
fThe  princes  murdered  by  Richard  III. 


1485-1509] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


l8l 


clergy,  who  had  not  recovered  from  their  dread  of  Lollardism 
(§§  307,  335)  and  its  attacks  on  their  wealth  and  influence,  were 
anxious  for  a  strong  conservative  government  such  as  Henry  prom¬ 
ised.  The  Commons  had  no  clear  united  policy,  and  though  the 
first  Parliament  put  certain  restraints  on  the  Crown,  yet  they  were 
never  really  enforced.1  The  truth  is,  that  the  new  King  was  both 
too  prudent  and  too  crafty  to  give  them  an  opportunity.  By 
avoiding  foreign  wars  he  dispensed  with  the  necessity  of  summon¬ 
ing  frequent  Parliaments,  and  also  with  demands  for  large  sums 
of  money. 

By  thus  ruling  alone  for  a  large  part  of  the  time,  Henry  got 
the  management  of  affairs  into  his  own  hands,  and  transmitted 
the  power  to  those  who  came  after  him.  In  this  way  the  Tudors 
with  their  successors,  the  Stuarts,  built  up  a  system  of  “  personal 
sovereignty”  —  or  “one  man  power”  unchecked  by  constitu¬ 
tional  restraints.  It  continued  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
when  the  outbreak  of  a  new  civil  war  brought  it  to  an  end  forever. 

381.  Growth  of  a  Stronger  Feeling  of  Nationality.  —  It  would 
be  an  error,  however,  to  consider  this  absolutism  of  the  Crown  as 
an  unmitigated  evil.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  in  one  important 
direction  an  advantage.  There  are  times  when  the  great  need  of 
a  people  is  not  more  individual  liberty,  but  greater  national  unity. 
Spain  and  France  were  two  countries  consisting  of  a  collection  of 
petty  feudal  states.  Their  nobility  were  always  trying  to  steal 
each  other’s  possessions  and  cut  each  other’s  throats. 

But  the  rise  in  each  country  of  a  royal  despotism  forced  the 
turbulent  barons  to  make  peace,  and  to  obey  a  common  central 
law.  By  this  means  both  realms  ultimately  developed  into  great 
and  powerful  kingdoms. 


1  At  the  accession  of  Henry  VII,  Parliament  imposed  the  following  checks  on 
the  power  of  the  King :  — 

1.  No  new  tax  to  be  levied  without  consent  of  Parliament. 

2.  No  new  law  to  be  made  without  the  same  consent. 

3.  No  committal  to  prison  without  a  warrant  specifying  the  offence,  and  the  trial 
to  be  speedy. 

4.  Criminal  charges  and  questions  of  fact  in  civil  cases  to  be  decided  by  jury. 

5.  The  King’s  officers  to  be  held  responsible  to  the  nation. 


1 82  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1485-1509 

When  the  Tudors  came  to  the  throne,  England  was  still  full  of 
the  rankling  hate  engendered  by  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  (§  351). 
Held  down  by  the  heavy  hand  of  Henry  VII,  and  by  the  still 
heavier  one  of  his  son,  the  country  learned  the  same  salutary 
lesson  of  growth  under  repression  which  had  benefited  Spain  and 
France. 

Henceforth  Englishmen  of  all  classes  no  longer  boasted  that 
they  belonged  to  the  Yorkist  or  the  Lancastrian  faction,  but  began 
to  pride  themselves  on  their  loyalty  to  Crown  and  country,  and 
their  readiness  to  draw  iheir  swords  to  defend  both.1 

382.  Henry’s  Methods  of  raising  Money;  the  Court  of  Star- 
Chamber.  —  Henry’s  r'eign  was  in  the  interest  of  the  middle 
classes,  —  the  farmers,  tradesmen,  and  mechanics.  His  policy 
was  to  avoid  heavy  taxation,  to  exempt  the  poor  from  the  bur¬ 
dens  of  state,  and  so  ingratiate  himself  with  a  large  body  of  the 
people. 

In  order  to  accomplish  this,  he  revived  “  benevolences  ”  (§§  359, 
365),  and  by  a  device  suggested  by  his  chief  minister,  Cardinal 
Morton,  and  hence  known  and  dreaded  as  “  Morton’s.Fork,”  he 
extorted,  large  sums  from  the  rich  and  well-to-do.2 

The  cardinal’s  agents  made  it  their  business  to  learn  every  man’s 
income,  and  visit  him  accordingly.  If  a  person  lived  handsomely, 
the  cardinal  would  insist  on  a  correspondingly  liberal  gift ;  if,  how¬ 
ever,  a  citizen  lived  very  plainly,  the  King’s  minister  insisted  none 
the  less,  telling  the  unfortunate  man  that  by  his  economy  he  must 
surely  have  accumulated  enough  to  bestow  the  required  “  benevo¬ 
lence.”  3  Thus  on  one  prong  or  the  other  of  his  terrible  “  fork  ” 

1  But  in  Ireland  the  passage  of  “  Poynings’  Act”  (1494)  brought  the  legislative 
independence  of  the  English  colony  in  that  island  to  an  end.  The  act  was  not 
repealed  until  1782. 

2  Those  whose  income  from  land  was  less  than  £2,  or  whose  movable  property 
aid  not  exceed  £  1 5  (say  S150  and  $1125  now),  were  exempt.  The  lowest  rate  of 
assessment  for  the  ‘‘  benevolences  ”  was  fixed  at  twenty  pence  on  the  pound  on  land, 
and  half  that  rate  on  other  property. 

3  Richard  Reed,  a  London  alderman,  refused  to  contribute  a  “  benevolence.”  He 
was  sent  to  serve  as  a  soldier  in  the  Scotch  wars  at  his  own  expense,  and  the  general 
received  government  orders  to  “  use  him  in  all  things  according  to  sharp  military 
discipline.”  The  effect  was  such  that  few  after  that  ventured  to  deny  the  King  what 
he  asked. 


1485-1509] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


183 


the  shrewd  cardinal  impaled  his  writhing  victims,  and  speedily 
filled  the  royal  treasury  as  it  had  never  been  filled  before.1 

But  Henry  had  other  methods  for  raising  money.  He  sold 
offices  in  Church  and  State,  and  took  bribes  for  pardoning  rebels. 
When  he  summoned  a  Parliament  he  obtained  grants  for  putting 
down  some  real  or  pretended  insurrection,  or  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  a  threatened  attack  from  abroad,  and  then  quietly 
pocketed  the  appropriation,  —  a  device  not  altogether  unknown 
to  modern  government  officials. 

A  third  and  last  method  for  getting  funds  was  invented  in 
Henry’s  behalf  by  two  lawyers,  Empson  and  Dudley,  who  were 
so  rapacious  and  cut  so  close  that  they  were  commonly  known 
as  “  the  King’s  skin-shearers.”  They  went  about  the  country 
enforcing  old  and  forgotten  laws,  by  which  they  reaped  a  rich 
harvest. 

Their  chief  instrument  for  gain,  however,  was  a  revival  of  the 
Statute  of  Liveries.  This  law  imposed  enormous  fines  on  those 
noblemen  who  dared  to  equip  their  followers  in  military  garb,  or 
designate  them  by  a  badge  equivalent  to  it,  as  had  been  their 
custom  during  the  civil  wars  (§  348). 

In  order  to  thoroughly  enforce  the  Statute  of  Liveries,  Henry 
organized  the  Court  of  Star-Chamber,  so  called  from  the  starred 
ceiling  where  the  tribunal  met.  'Phis  court  had  for  its  object 
the  punishment  of  such  crimes  committed  by  the  great  families, 
or  their  adherents,  as  the  ordinary  law  courts  could  not,  or 
through  intimidation  daPed  not,  deal  with.  It  had  no  power  to 
inflict  death,  but  might  impose  long  terms  of  imprisonment  and 
ruinous  fines.  It,  too,  first  made  use  of  torture  in  England  to 
extort  confessions  of  guilt. 

Henry  seems  to  have  enforced  the  Law  of  Livery  against  friend 
and  foe  alike.  Said  the  King  to  the  Earl  of  Oxford,  as  he  left 
his  castle,  where  a  large  number  of  retainers  in  uniform  were 
drawn  up  to  do  him  honor,  “  My  lord,  I  thank  you  for  your  enter¬ 
tainment,  but  my  attorney  must  speak  to  you.”  The  attorney, 

1  Henry  is  said  to  have  accumulated  a  fortune  of  nearly  two  millions  sterling,  an 
amount  which  would  perhaps  represent  upwards  of  $90, 000,000  now. 


1 84  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1485-1509 


who  was  the  notorious  Empson,  brought  suit  in  the  Star-Chamber 
against  the  earl,  who  was  fined  15,000  marks,  or  something  like 
$750,000,  for  the  incautious  display  he  had  made. 

383.  The  Introduction  of  Artillery  strengthens  the  Power  of 
the  King.  —  It  was  easier  for  Henry  to  pursue  this  arbitrary 
course  because  the  introduction  of  artillery  had  changed  the  art 
of  war.  Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  the  call  of  a  great  baron 
had,  as  Macaulay  says,  been  sufficient  to  raise  a  formidable 
revolt. 

Countrymen  and  followers  took  down  their  tough  yew  long¬ 
bows  from  the  chimney-corner,  knights  buckled  on  their  steel 
armor,  mounted  their  horses,  and  in  a  few  days  an  army  threat¬ 
ened  the  throne,  which  had  no  troops  save  those  furnished  by 
loyal  subjects. 

But  now  that  men  had  digged  “  villainous  saltpetre  out  of  the 
bowels  of  the  harmless  earth  ”  to  manufacture  powder,  and  that 
others  had  invented  cannon  (§291),  “those  devilish  iron 
engines,”  as  the  poet  Spenser  called  them,  “ordained  to  kill,” 
all  was  different. 

Without  artillery,  the  old  feudal  army,  with  its  bows,  swords, 
and  battle-axes,  could  do  little  against  a  king  like  Henry,  who 
had  it.  For  this  reason  the  whole  kingdom  lay  at  his  mercy ; 
and  though  the  nobles  and  the  rich  might  groan,  they  saw  that 
it  was  useless  to  fight. 

384.  The  Pretenders  Symnel  and  Warbeck.  —  During  Henry’s 
reign,  two  pretenders  laid  claim  to  the  brown  :  Lambert  Symnel, 
who  represented  himself  to  be  Edward  Plantagenet,  nephew  of 
the  late  king ;  and  Perkin  Warbeck,  who  asserted  that  he  was 
Richard,  Duke  of  York  (§  362),  who  had  been  murdered  in  the 
Tower  by  his  uncle,  Richard  III.  Symnel’s  attempt  was  easily 
suppressed,  and  he  commuted  his  claim  to  the  crown  for  the 
position  of  scullion  in  the  King’s  kitchen. 

Warbeck  kept  the  kingdom  in  a  turmoil  for  more  than  five 
years,  during  which  time  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  his  adher¬ 
ents  were  executed,  and  their  bodies  exposed  on  gibbets  along 
the  south  shore  to  deter  their  master’s  French  supporters  from 


HENRY  VII'S  CHAPEL  (Westminster  Abbey) 


485-1509] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


185 


landing.  At  length  Warbeck  was  captured,  imprisoned,  and  finally 
hanged  at  Tyburn. 

385.  Henry’s  Politic  Marriages. — Henry  accomplished  more 
by  the  marriages  of  his  children  and  by  diplomacy  than  other 
monarchs  had  by  their  wars.  He  gave  his  daughter  Margaret  to 
King  James  IV  of  Scotland,  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the 
union  of  the  two  kingdoms.  He  married  his  eldest  son,  Prince 
Arthur,  to  Catharine  of  Aragon,  daughter  of  the  King  of  Spain,  by 
which  he  secured  a  very  large  marriage  portion  for  the  prince,  and, 
what  was  of  equal  importance,  the  alliance  of  Spain  against  France. 

Arthur  died  soon  afterwards,  and  the  King  got  a  dispensation 
from  the  Pope,  granting  him  permission  to  marry  his  younger 
son  Henry  to  Arthur’s  widow.  It  was  this  prince  who  eventually 
became  King  of  England,  with  the  title  of  Henry  VIII,  and  we 
shall  hereafter  see  that  this  marriage  was  destined  by  its  results 
to  change  the  whole  course  of  the  country’s  history. 

386.  The  World  as  known  at  Henry’s  Accession  (1485). — 
The  King  also  took  some  small  part  in  certain  other  events, 
which  seemed  to  him,  at  the  time,  of  less  consequence  than  these 
matrimonial  alliances.  But  history  has  regarded  them  in  a  differ¬ 
ent  light  from  that  in  which  the  cunning  and  cautious  monarch 
considered  them. 

A  glance  at  the  map 1  will  show  how  different  our  world  is 
from  that  with  which  the  English  of  Henry’s  time  were  acquainted. 
Then  the  earth  was  generally  supposed  not  to  be  a  globe,  but 
simply  a  flat  body  surrounded  by  the  ocean.  The  only  countries 
of  which  anything  was  certainly  known,  with  the  exception  of 
Europe,  were  parts  of  Western  Asia,  together  with  a  small  strip 
of  the  northern  and  eastern  coast  of  Africa.  The  knowledge 
which  had  once  existed  of  India,  China,  and  Japan  appears  to 
have  died  out  in  great  measure  with  the  travellers  and  merchants 
of  earlier  times  who  had  brought  it.  The  land  farthest  west  of 
which  anything  was  then  known  was  Iceland. 


.  First  Voyages  of  Exploration  ;  the  Cabots,  1497.  — About 


the  time  of  Henry’s  accession  a  new  spirit  of  exploration  sprang 


1  See  Map  Xo.  1?,  facing  page  1S6. 


1 86  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1485-1509 


up.  The  Portuguese  had  coasted  along  Africa  as  far  as  the  Gulf 
of  Guinea,  and  there  established  trading-posts.  Stimulated  by 
what  they  had  done,  Columbus,  who  believed  the  earth  to  be 
round,  determined  to  sail  westward  in  the  hope  of  reaching  the 
Indies.  In  1492  he  made  his  first  voyage,  and  discovered  a 
number  of  the  West  India  Islands. 

Five  years  later  (1497),  John  Cabot,  a  Venetian  residing  in 
Bristol,  England,  with  his  son  Sebastian,  who  was  probably  born 
there,  persuaded  the  King  to  aid  them  in  a  similar  undertaking. 
They  sailed  from  that  port.  On  a  map  drawn  by  the  father  after 
his  return  we  read  the  following  lines  :  “  In  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1497,  John  Cabot  and  his  son  Sebastian  discovered  that  country 
which  no  one  before  his  time  had  ventured  to  approach,  on  the 
24th  June,  about  5  o’clock  in  the  morning.”  That  entry  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  record  the  discovery  of  Cape  Breton  Island  ; 1  a  few  days 
later  they  set  foot  on  the  mainland.  This  made  the  Cabots  the 
first  discoverers  of  the  American  continent. 

As  an  offset  to  that  record  we  have  the  following,  taken  from  the 
King’s  private  account-book  :  “  10.  Aug.  1497,  To  him  that  found 
the  new  isle  ^10.” 

Such  was  the  humble  beginning  of  a  series  of  explorations  which 
gave  England  possession  of  the  largest  part  of  North  America. 

388.  Henry  VII’s  Reign  the  Beginning  of  a  New  Epoch. — 
A  few  years  after  Cabot’s  return  Henry  laid  the  corner-stone  of 
that  “  solemn  and  sumptuous  chapel  ”  which  bears  his  own  name, 
and  which  joins  Westminster  Abbey  on  the  east.  There  he  gave 
orders  that  his  tomb  should  be  erected,  and  that  prayers  should 
be  said  over  it  “as  long  as  the  world  lasted.” 

Emerson  remarks 2  that  when  the  visitor  to  the  Abbey  mounts 
the  flight  of  twelve  black  marble  steps  which  lead  from  it  to  the 
edifice  where  Henry  lies  buried,  he  passes  from  the  mediaeval  to  the 
beginning  of  the  modern  age,  —  a  change  which  the  architecture 
itself  distinctly  marks  (§  376). 

The  true  significance  of  Henry’s  reign  is,  that  it,  in  like  manner, 

1  Newfoundland  was  probably  discovered  at  the  same  time. 

2  Emerson’s  English  Traits. 


No.  12.  THE  WORLD  SHORTLY  AFTER  THE  ACCESSION  OF  HENRY  VII 

Light  arrows  show  voyages  south  made  up  to  1492  ;  (light  track,  Da  Gama  s  voyage,  1497). 
Dark  arrows,  voyages  of  Columbus  and  Cabot. 

White  crosses,  countries  of  which  something  was  known  before  1492.  ^ 

White  area,  including  western  coast  of  Africa,  the  world  as  known  shortly  after  Henry  V  1 1  s 
accession. 


4S5-1 5°9] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


187 


stands  for  a  new  epoch,  —  new  in  modes  of  government,  in  law, 
in  geographical  discovery,  in  letters,  art,  and  religion. 

The  century  just  closing  was  indeed  one  of  the  most  remark¬ 
able  in  history,  not  only  in  what  it  had  actually  accomplished, 
but  still  more  in  the  seed  it  was  sowing  for  the  future.  The  artist 
Kaulbach,  in  his  fresco  entitled  “The  Age  of  the  Reformation,”1 
has  summed  up  all  that  it  was,  and  all  that  it  was  destined  to 
become  in  its  full  development. 

Therein  we  see  it  as  the  period  which  witnessed  the  introduction 
of  firearms,  and  the  consequent  overthrow  of  feudal  warfare  and 
feudal  institutions ;  the  growth  of  the  power  of  royalty  and  of 
nationality  through  royalty ;  the  sailing  of  Columbus  and  of 
Cabot ;  the  revival  of  classical  learning ;  the  publication  of  the 
first  printed  book ;  and  finally,  the  birth  of  that  monk,  Martin 
Luther,  who  was  to  emancipate  the  human  mind  from  its  long 
bondage  to  ecclesiastical  tradition  and  arbitrary  authority. 

389.  Summary.  —  Looking  back,  we  find  that  with  Henry  the 
absolutism  of  the  Crown  or  “  personal  monarchy  ”  began  in  Eng¬ 
land.  Yet  through  its  repressive  power  the  country  gained  a  pro¬ 
longed  peace,  and,  despite  “benevolences”  and  other  exactions, 
it  grew  into  stronger  national  unity. 

Simultaneously  with  this  increase  of  royal  authority  came  the 
discovery  of  a  “New  World,”  in  which  England  was  to  have  the 
chief  part.  A  century  will  elapse  before  those  discoveries  bear 
fruit.  After  that,  our  attention  will  no  longer  be  confined  to  the 
British  Islands,  but  will  be  fixed  as  well  on  that  western  continent 
where  English  enterprise  and  English  love  of  liberty  were  destined 
to  find  a  new  and  broader  field  of  activity. 

HENRY  VIII  — 1509-1547 

390.  Henry’s  Advantages.  —  Henry  was  not  quite  eighteen 
when  he  came  to  the  throne.  The  country  was  at  peace,  was 
fairly  prosperous,  and  the  young  King  had  everything  in  his  favor. 

1  Kaulbach’s  (Kowl'bak)  Age  of  the  Reformation :  one  of  a  historical  series  of 
colossal  wall  paintings  in  the  Berlin  Museum. 


1 88  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1509-1547 


He  was  handsome,  well  educated,  and  fond  of  athletic  sports.  His 
frank  disposition  won  friends  everywhere,  and  he  had  inherited 
from  his  father  the  largest  private  fortune  that  had  ever  descended 
to  an  English  sovereign.  Intellectually,  he  was  in  hearty  sympathy 
with  the  revival  of  learning,  then  in  progress  both  on  the  continent 
and  in  England. 

391.  The  New  Learning;  Colet,  Erasmus,  More.  —  During  the 

greater  part  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  chief  object  of  education  was 
to  make  men  monks,  and  originally  the  schools  established  at 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  were  exclusively  for  that  purpose.  In 
their  day  they  did  excellent  work  ;  but  a  time  came  when  men 
ceased  to  found  monasteries,  and  began  to  erect  colleges  and 
hospitals  instead.1 

In  the  course  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  William 
of  Wykeham  and  King  Henry  VI  built  and  endowed  colleges  which 
were  specially  designed  to  fit  their  pupils  to  live  in  the  world  and 
serve  the  State,  instead  of  withdrawing  from  it  to  seek  their  own 
salvation. 

These  new  institutions  encouraged  a  broader  range  of  studies, 
and  in  Henry  Vi’s  time  particular  attention  was  given  to  the  Latin 
classics,  hitherto  but  little  known.  The  geographical  discoveries 
of  Henry  VII’s  reign,  made  by  Columbus,  Cabot,  and  others,  began 
to  stimulate  scientific  thought  (§  387).  It  was  evident  that  the 
day  was  not  far  distant  when  questions  about  the  earth  and  the 
stars  would  no  longer  be  settled  by  a  text  from  Scripture  which 
forbade  further  inquiry. 

With  the  accession  of  Henry  VIII  education  received  a  still 
further  impulse.  A  few  zealous  English  scholars  had  just  returned 
from  Italy  to  Oxford,  frill  of  ardor  for  a  new  study,  —  that  of  Greek. 
Among  them  was  a  young  clergyman  named  John  Colet.  He  saw 
that  by  means  of  that  language,  of  which  the  alphabet  was  as  yet 
hardly  known  in  England,  men  might  put  themselves  in  direct 
communication  with  the  greatest  thinkers  and  writers  of  the  past. 

1  In  the  twelfth  century  four  hundred  and  eighteen  monasteries  were  founded  in 
England ;  in  the  next  century,  only  about  a  third  as  many ;  in  the  fourteenth,  only 
twenty-three ;  after  that  date  their  establishment  may  be  said  to  cease. 


1 5°9-1 547] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


189 

Better  still,  they  might  acquire  the  power  of  reading  the  Gospels 
and  the  writings  of  St.  Paul  in  the  original,  and  thus  reach  their 
true  meaning  and  feel  their  full  influence.  Colet’s  intimate  friend 
and  fellow-worker,  the  Dutch  scholar  Erasmus,  had  the  same 
enthusiasm.  When  in  sore  need  of  everything,  he  wrote  in  one 
of  his  letters,  “  As  soon  as  I  get  some  money  I  shall  buy  Greek 
books,  and  then  I  may  buy  some  clothes.”  The  third  young  man, 
who,  with  Erasmus  and  Colet,  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of 
Cjreek  and  to  the  advancement  of  learning  was  Thomas  More,  who 
later  became  Lord  Chancellor  (§  403). 

The  three  looked  to  King  Henry  for  encouragement  in  the  work 
they  had  undertaken  ;  nor  did  they  look  in  vain.  Colet,  who  had 
become  a  doctor  of  divinity  and  a  dean  of  St.  Paul’s  Cathedral, 
London,  encountered  a  furious  storm  of  opposition  on  account  of 
his  devotion  to  the  “New  Learning,”  as  it  was  sneeringly  called. 
His  attempts  at  educational  reform  met  the  same  resistance. 

But  Henry  stood  by  him,  liking  the  man’s  spirit,  and  saying, 
“  Let  others  have  what  doctors  they  will ;  this  is  the  doctor  for 
me.”  The  King  also  took  a  lively  interest  in  Erasmus,  who  was 
appointed  professor  of  Greek  at  Cambridge,  where  he  began  his 
great  work  of  preparing  an  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament  with 
a  Latin  translation  in  parallel  columns. 

Up  to  this  time  the  Greek  Testament  had  existed  in  scattered 
manuscripts  only.  The  publication  of  the  work  in  printed  form 
gave  an  additional  impetus  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  helped 
forward  the  Reformation,  and  in  a  measure  laid  the  foundation 
for  a  revised  English  translation  of  the  Bible  far  superior  to 
Wycliffe’s  (§  306).  In  the  same  spirit  of  genuine  love  of  learn¬ 
ing,  Henry  founded  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  at  a  later 
date  confirmed  and  extended  Cardinal  Wolsey’s  endowment 
of  Christ  Church  College,  Oxford. 

392.  Henry  versus  Luther.  —  The  King  continued,  however, 
to  be  a  stanch  Catholic,  and  certainly  had  no  thought  at  this 
period  of  doing  anything  which  should  tend  to  undermine  that 
ancient  form  of  worship.  In  Germany,  Martin  Luther  was  mak¬ 
ing  ready  to  begin  his  tremendous  battle  against  the  power  and 


190  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1509-1547 


teachings  of  the  Papacy.  In  1517  he  nailed  to  the  door  of 
the  church  of  Wittenberg  that  famous  series  of  denunciations 
which  started  the  movement  that  ultimately  protested  against  the 
authority  of  Rome,  and  gave  the  name  of  Protestant  to  all  who 
joined  it. 

A  few  years  later  Henry  published  a  reply  to  one  of  Luther’s 
books,  and  sent  a  copy  bound  in  cloth  of  gold  to  the  Pope.  The 
Pope  was  so  delighted  with  what  he  termed  Henry’s  “angelic 
spirit,”  that  he  forthwith  conferred  on  him  the  title  of  “  Defender 
of  the  Faith.”  The  English  sovereigns  have  persisted  in  retain¬ 
ing  it  to  the  present  time,  though  for  what  reason,  and  with  what 
right,  even  a  royal  intellect  might  be  somewhat  puzzled  to 
explain. 

With  the  new  and  flattering  title  the  Pope  also  sent  the  King 
a  costly  two-handed  sword,  intended  to  represent  Henry’s  zeal 
in  smiting  the  enemies  of  Rome,  but  destined  by  fate  to  be 
the  symbol  of  the  King’s  final  separation  from  the  power  that 
bestowed  it. 

393.  Victory  of  Flodden  (1513);  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold 

(1520).  —  Politically,  Henry  was  equally  fortunate.  The  Scotch 
had  ventured  to  attack  the  kingdom  during  the  King’s  absence 
on  the  continent.  They  were  defeated  at  Flodden 1  by  the  Earl 
of  Surrey,  with  great  slaughter.  This  victory  placed  Scotland  at 
Henry’s  feet.2 

The  King  of  France  and  the  Emperor  Charles  V  of  Germany 
now  vied  with  each  other  in  seeking  Henry’s  alliance.  The  Em¬ 
peror  visited  England  in  order  to  meet  the  English  sovereign, 
while  the  King  of  France  arranged  an  interview  in  his  own  domin¬ 
ions,  known,  from  the  magnificence  of  its  appointments,  as  the 
“  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold.”  Henry  held  the  balance  of  power 
by  which  he  could  make  France  or  Germany  predominate  as 
he  saw  fit.  It  was  owing  to  his  able  diplomatic  policy,  or  to 
Wolsey’s,  that  England  reaped  advantages  from  both  sides,  and 

1  Flodden  is  on  the  border  of  Scotland  and  England.  See  Map  No.  9,  facing 
page  122. 

2  See  Scott’s  Marmion. 


1509-1547] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


191 

advanced  from  a  comparatively  low  position  to  one  that  was  fully 
abreast  of  the  foremost  nations  of  Europe. 

394.  Henry’s  Marriage  with  his  Brother’s  Widow. — Such 
was  the  King  at  the  outset.  In  less  than  twenty  years  he  had 
become  another  man.  At  the  age  of  twelve  he  had  married"1  at  his 
father’s  command,  and  solely  for  political  and  mercenary  reasons, 
Catharine  of  Aragon,  his  brother  Arthur’s  widow  (§  385),  who  was 
six  years  his  senior.  Such  a  marriage  was  forbidden,  except  in 
certain  cases,  by  the  Old  Testament  and  by  the  ordinances  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  Pope,  however,  had  granted  his  permission,  and  when  Henry 
ascended  the  throne,  the  ceremony  was  performed  a  second  time. 
Several  children  were  the  fruit  of  this  union,  all  (f f  whom  died  in 
infancy,  except  one  daughter,  Mary,  unhappily  fated  to  figure  as 
the  “Bloody  Mary”  of  later  history  (§  426). 

395.  The  King’s  Anxiety  for  a  Successor ;  Anne  Boleyn.  — 
No  woman  had  yet  ruled  in  her  own  right,  either  in  England  or 
in  any  prominent  kingdom  of  Europe,  and  Henry  was  anxious 
to  have  a  son  to  succeed  him.  He  could  not  bear  the  thought  of 
being  disappointed  ;  in  fact  he  sent  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  to 
the  block  for  casually  saying,  that  if  the  King  died  without  issue, 
he  should  consider  himself  entitled  to  receive  the  crown. 

It  was  while  meditating  this  question  of  the  succession,  that 
Henry  became  attached  to  Anne  Boleyn,  one  of  the  Queen’s  maids 
of  honor;  she  was  a  sprightly  brunette  of  nineteen,  with  long 
black  hair  and  strikingly  beautiful  eyes. 

The  light  that  shone  in  those  eyes,  though  hardly  that  “  Gospel- 
light  ”  which  the  poet  calls  it,2  was  yet  bright  enough  to  effect¬ 
ually  clear  up  all  difficulties  in  the  royal  mind.  The  King  now  felt 
conscientiously  moved  to  obtain  a  divorce  from  the  old  wife,  and 
to  marry  a  new  one.  In  that  determination  lay  most  moment¬ 
ous  consequences,  since  it  finally  separated  England  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

1  See  Hallam ;  other  authorities  call  it  a  solemn  betrothal. 

2  “  When  love  could  teach  a  monarch  to  be  wise, 

And  Gospel-light  first  dawned  from  Bullen’s  [Boleyn’s]  eyes.”  —  Gray. 


192  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1509-1547 


396.  Wolsey  favors  the  Divorce  from  Catharine.  —  Cardinal 
Wolsey,  Henry’s  chief  counsellor,  lent  his  powerful  aid  to  bring 
about  the  divorce,  but  with  the  expectation  that  the  King  would 
marry  a  princess  of  France,  and  thus  form  an  alliance  with  that 
country.  If  so,  his  own  ambitious  schemes  w'ould  be  forwarded, 
since  the  united  influence  of  the  two  kingdoms  might  elevate  him 
to  the  Papacy. 

When  Wolsey  learned  that  the  King’s  choice  wras  Anne  Boleyn 
(§  395),  he  fell  on  his  knees, and  begged  him  not  to  persist  in  his 
purpose ;  but  his  entreaties  had  no  effect,  and  the  cardinal  w'as 
obliged  to  continue  w’hat  he  had  begun. 

397.  The  Court  at  Blackfriars  (1529) - Application  had  been 

made  to  the  Pope  to  annul  the  marriage  with  Catharine  (§  394) 
on  the  ground  of  illegality  ;  but  the  Pope  wras  in  the  power  of  the 
Emperor  Charles  V,  who  wras  the  Queen’s  nephew.  Vexatious 
delays  now  became  the  order  of  the  day.  At  last,  a  court  com¬ 
posed  of  Cardinal  Wolsey  and  Cardinal  Campeggio,  an  Italian, 
as  papal  legates,  or  representatives,  was  convened  at  Blackfriars, 
London,  to  test  the  validity  of  the  marriage. 

Henry  and  Catharine  w-ere  summoned.  The  first  appeared  and 
answered  to  his  name.  When  the  Queen  was  called  she  declined 
to  answer,  but  throwing  herself  at  Henry’s  feet,  begged  him  with 
tears  and  sobs  not  to  put  her  aw-ay  without  cause.  Finding  him 
inflexible,  she  left  the  court,  and  refused  to  attend  again,  appealing 
to  Rome  for  justice. 

This  was  in  the  spring  (1529).  Nothing  was  done  that  summer, 
and  in  the  autumn,  the  court,  instead  of  reaching  a  decision, 
dissolved.  Campeggio,  the  Italian  legate,  returned  to  Italy,  and 
Henry,  to  his  disappointment  and  rage,  received  an  order  from 
Rome  to  carry  the  question  to  the  Pope  for  settlement. 

398.  Fall  of  Wolsey  (1529).  —  Both  the  King  and  Anne 
Boleyn  believed  that  Wolsey  had  played  false  with  them.  They 
now’  resolved  upon  his  destruction.  The  cardinal  had  a  presenti¬ 
ment  of  his  impending  doom.  The  French  ambassador,  who  saw 
him  at  this  juncture,  said  that  his  face  had  shrunk  to  half  its  size. 
But  his  fortunes  were  destined  to  shrink  even  more  than  his  face. 


1509-1547] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


193 


By  a  law  of  Richard  II  (Act  of  Praemunire),  no  representative 
of  the  Pope  had  any  rightful  authority  in  England  1  (§  317). 
Though  the  King  had  given  his  consent  to  VVolsey’s  holding 
the  office  of  legate,  yet  now  that  a  contrary  result  to  what  he 
expected  had  been  reached,  he  proceeded  to  prosecute  him  to 
the  full  extent  of  the  law. 

It  was  an  easy  matter  to  crush  the  cardinal.  His  arrogance 
and  extravagant  ostentation  had  excited  the  jealous  hate  of  the 
nobility ;  his  constant  demands  for  money  in  behalf  of  the  King 
had  set  Parliament  against  him  ;  and  his  exactions  from  the  com¬ 
mon  people  had,  as  the  chronicle  of  the  time  tells  11s,  made  them 
weep,  beg,  and  “  speak  cursedly.” 

Wolsey  bowed  to  the  storm,  and  to  save  himself  gave  up  every¬ 
thing  ;  his  riches,  pomp,  power,  all  vanished  as  suddenly  as  they 
had  come.  It  was  Henry’s  hand  that  stripped  him,  but  it  was 
Anne  Boleyn  who  moved  that  hand.  Well  might  the  humbled 
favorite  say  of  her  :  — 

“  There  was  the  weight  that  pulled  me  down. 

...  all  my  glories 

In  that  one  woman  I  have  lost  forever.”1 2 

Thus  deprived  of  well-nigh  everything  but  life,  Wolsey  was  per¬ 
mitted  to  go  into  retirement  in  the  north  ;  less  than  a  twelvemonth 
later  he  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  high  treason.  Through  the 
irony  of  fate,  the  warrant  was  served  by  a  former  lover  of  Anne 
Boleyn’s,  whom  Wolsey,  it  is  said,  had  separated  from  her  in  order 
that  she  might  consummate  her  unhappy  marriage  with  royalty. 
On  the  way  to  London  Wolsey  fell  mortally  ill,  and  turned  aside 
at  Leicester  to  die  in  the  abbey  there,  with  the  words  :  — 

“  .  .  .  O,  Father  Abbot, 

An  old  man,  broken  with  the  storms  of  state, 

Is  come  to  lay  his  weary  bones  among  ye  : 

Give  him  a  little  earth  for  charity  !  ”  3 

1  Act  of  Prasmunire  (Prem'u-ni're).  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History 
in  the  Appendix,  page  xiii,  §  14,  and  page  xxxii. 

2  Shakespeare’s  Henry  VIII,  Act  III,  Scene  2. 

3  Shakespeare’s  Henry  VIII,  Act  IV,  Scene  2. 


194  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1509-1547 


399.  Appeal  to  the  Universities.  —  Before  Wolsey’s  death,  Dr. 
Thomas  Cranmer,  of  Cambridge,  suggested  that  the  King  lay  the 
divorce  question  before  the  universities  of  Europe.  Henry  caught 
eagerly  at  this  proposition,  and  exclaimed,  “  Cranmer  has  the  right 
pig  by  the  ear.”  The  scheme  was  at  once  adopted.  Several 
universities  returned  favorable  answers.  In  a  few  instances,  as  at 
Oxford  anti  Cambridge,  where  the  authorities  hesitated,  a  judi¬ 
cious  use  of  bribes  or  threats  soon  brought  them  to  see  the  matter 
in  a  proper  light. 

400.  The  Clergy  declare  Henry  Head  of  the  Church  (1531).  — 

Armed  with  these  decisions  in  his  favor,  Henry  now  charged  the 
whole  body  of  the  English  Church  with  being  guilty  of  the  same 
crime  of  which  Wolsey  had  been  accused  (§  398).  The  clergy, 
in  their  terror,  made  haste  to  buy  a  pardon  at  a  cost  reckoned  at 
nearly  $5,000,000  at  the  present  value  of  money. 

They  furthermore  declared  Henry  to  be  the  supreme  head  on 
earth  of  the  Church  of  England,  adroitly  adding,  “  in  so  far  as  is 
permitted  by  the  law  of  Christ.”  Thus  the  Reformation  came 
into  England  “  by  a  side  door,  as  it  were.”  Nevertheless,  it  came. 

401.  Henry  marries  Anne  Boleyn ;  Act  of  Supremacy  (1534).  — 
Events  now  moved  rapidly  toward  a  crisis.  Thomas  Cromwell, 
Wolsey’s  former  servant  and  fast  friend,  succeeded  him  in  the 
King’s  favor.  In  1533,  after  having  waited  over  five  years,  Henry 
privately  married  Anne  Boleyn  (§  395),  and  she  was  soon  after 
crowned  in  Westminster  Abbey.  When  the  Pope  was  informed  of 
this,  he  ordered  the  King,  under  pain  of  excommunication  (§§  218, 
246),  to  put  her  away,  and  to  take  back  Catharine  (§  397). 

Parliament  met  that  demand  by  passing  the  Act  of  Supremacy 
(1534),  which  declared  Henry  to  be  without  reservation  the  sole 
head  of  the  Church,  making  denial  thereof  high  treason.1  As  he 
signed  the  act,  the  King  with  one  stroke  of  his  pen  overturned 
the  traditions  of  a  thousand  years,  and  England  stood  boldly  forth 
with  a  National  Church  independent  of  the  Pope. 

1  Henry’s  full  title  was  now  “  Henry  VIII,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  King  of  England, 
France,  and  Ireland,  Defender  of  the  Faith  and  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  also 
of  Ireland,  on  earth  the  Supreme  Head.” 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


195 


1509-1547] 

402.  Subserviency  of  Parliament.  —  But  as  Luther  said,  Henry 
had  a  pope  within  him.  Through  Thomas  Cromwell’s  zealous  aid 
he  now  proceeded  to  prove  it.  We  have  already  seen  (§  368) 
that  since  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  had  destroyed  the  power  of  the 
barons,  there  was  no  effectual  check  on  the  despotic  will  of  the 
King.  The  new  nobility  were  the  creatures  of  the  Crown,  hence 
bound  to  support  it ;  the  clergy  were  timid,  the  Commons  any¬ 
thing  but  bold,  so  that  Parliament  gradually  became  the  servile 
echo  and  ready  instrument  of  the  throne. 

It  empowered  the  King  on  his  reaching  the  age  of  twenty- 
four  to  annul  whatever  legislative  enactments  he  pleased  of  those 
which  had  been  passed  since  his  accession.  It  later  humiliated 
itself  still  further  by  promulgating  that  law  (1539),  in  itself  the 
destruction  of  all  law,  which  gave  Henry’s  simple  proclama¬ 
tions  the  force  of  acts  of  Parliament,  and  thus  enabled  him  to 
declare  any  opinions  he  disliked  heretical  or  treasonable  and 
punishable  with  death. 

403.  Execution  of  More  and  Fisher  (1535). — Thomas  Crom¬ 
well  in  his  crooked  and  cruel  policy  had  reduced  bloodshed  to  a 
science.  He  first  introduced  the  practice  of  condemning  an 
accused  prisoner  (by  Act  of  Attainder)  without  allowing  him  to 
speak  in  his  own  defence.  No  one  was  now  safe  who  did  not 
openly  side  with  the  King. 

Sir  Thomas  More,  who  had  been  Lord  Chancellor  (§  391),  and 
the  aged  Bishop  Fisher  were  executed  because  they  could  not  affirm 
that  they  conscientiously  believed  that  Henry  was  morally  and 
spiritually  entitled  to  be  the  head  of  the  English  Church  (§  401). 

Both  died  with  Christian  fortitude.  More  said  to  the  governor 
of  the  Tower  with  a  flash  of  his  old  humor,  as  the  steps  leading 
to  the  scaffold  shook  while  he  was  mounting  them,  “  Do  you  see 
me  safe  up,  and  I  will  make  shift  to  get  down  by  myself.” 

404.  Suppression  of  the  Monasteries  ;  Seizure  of  their  Property 
(I53^_I539)- — When  the  intelligence  of  the  judicial  murder  of 
the  venerable  ex-chancellor  reached  Rome,  the  Pope  issued  a  bull 
of  excommunication  and  deposition  against  Henry.  It  delivered 
his  soul  to  the  devil,  and  his  kingdom  to  the  first  invader. 


196  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1509-1547 


The  King  retaliated  by  the  suppression  of  the  monasteries.  In 
doing  so,  he  simply  hastened  a  process  which  had  already  begun. 
Years  before,  Cardinal  Wolsey  had  not  scrupled  to  shut  up  several, 
and  take  their  revenues  to  found  a  college  at  Oxford.  The  truth 
was,  that  monasticism  had  done  its  work,  and,  as  a  recent  writer 
has  well  said,  “  was  dead  long  before  the  Reformation  came  to 
bury  it.”  1 

Henry,  however,  had  no  such  worthy  object  as  Wolsey  had. 
His  pretext  was  that  these  institutions  had  sunk  into  a  state  of 
ignorance,  drunkenness,  and  profligacy.  This  may  have  been 
true,  in  some  measure,  of  the  smaller  monasteries,  but  not  of  the 
larger  ones. 

But  their  vices  the  King  had  already  made  his  own.  It  was 
their  wealth  which  he  now  coveted.  The  smaller  religious  houses 
were  speedily  swept  out  of  existence  (1536).  This  caused  a  furi¬ 
ous  insurrection  in  the  north,  called  the  “  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  ” 
( 1 5  3  7  )  >  tmt  the  revolt  was  soon  put  down. 

Though  Parliament  had  readily  given  its  sanction  to  the  extinc¬ 
tion  of  the  smaller  monasteries,  it  hesitated  about  abolishing  the 
greater  ones.  Henry,  it  is  reported,  sent  for  a  leading  member  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  and,  laying  his  hand  on  the  head  of  the 
kneeling  representative,  said,  “  Get  my  bill  passed  by  to-morrow, 
little  man,  or  else  to-morrow  this  head  of  yours  will  come  off.” 
The  next  day  the  bill  passed,  and  the  work  of  destruction  began 
anew  (1539).  It  involved  the  confiscation  of  property  worth 
millions  of  pounds,  and  the  summary  execution  of  abbots,  who, 
like  those  of  Glastonbury  and  Charter  House,  dared  to  resist.2 

The  magnificent  monastic  buildings  throughout  England  were 
now  stripped  of  everything  of  value,  and  left  as  ruins.  The  beau¬ 
tiful  windows  of  stained  glass  were  wantonly  broken ;  the  images 
of  the  saints  were  cast  down  from  their  niches ;  the  chimes 
of  bells  were  melted  and  cast  into  cannon ;  while  the  valuable 

1  Armitage’s  Childhood  of  the  English  Nation. 

2  The  total  number  of  religious  houses  destroyed  was  645  monasteries,  2374 
chapels,  90  collegiate  churches,  and  no  charitable  institutions.  Among  the  most 
famous  of  these  ruins  are  Kirkstall,  Furness,  Netley,  Tintern,  and  Fountains  Abbeys. 


•5°9-'S47] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


197 


libraries  were  torn  up  and  sold  to  grocers  and  soap-boilers  for 
wrapping-paper. 

At  Canterbury,  Becket’s  tomb  (§  221)  was  broken  open,  and 
after  he  had  been  nearly  four  centuries  in  his  grave,  the  saint  was 
summoned  to  answer  a  charge  of  rebellion  and  treason.  The 
case  was  tried  at  Westminster  Abbey,  the  martyr’s  bones  were 
sentenced  to  be  burned,  and  the  jewels  and  rich  offerings  of 
his  shrine  were  seized  by  the  King. 

Among  the  few  monastic  buildings  which  escaped  was  the  beau¬ 
tiful  abbey  church  of  Peterborough,  where  Catharine  of  Aragon 
(§  397)>  who  died  soon  after  the  King’s  marriage  with  her  rival, 
was  buried.  Henry  had  the  grace  to  give  orders  that  on  her 
account  it  should  be  spared,  saying  that  he  would  leave  to  her 
memory  “one  of  the  goodliest  monuments  in  Christendom.” 

The  great  estates  thus  suddenly  acquired  by  the  Crown  were 
granted  to  favorites  or  thrown  away  at  the  gambling-table.  “  It  is 
from  this  date,”  says  Hallam,  “  that  the  leading  families  of  Eng¬ 
land,  both  within  and  without  the  peerage,  became  conspicuous 
through  having  obtained  possession  of  the  monastery  lands.” 
These  were  estimated  to  comprise  about  one-fourth  of  the  whole 
rea  of  the  kingdom. 


^  405.  Effects  of  the  Destruction  of  the  Monasteries - The 

sweeping  character  of  this  act  had  a  twofold  effect.  First,  it 
made  the  King  more  absolute  than  before,  for,  since  it  removed 
the  abbots,  who  had  held  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that 
body  was  made  just  so  much  smaller  and  less  able  to  resist  the 
royal  will. 

Next,  the  abolition  of  so  many  religious  institutions  necessarily 
caused  great  misery  to  those  who  were  turned  out  upon  the  world 
destitute  of  means  and  without  ability  to  work.  In  the  end,  how¬ 
ever,  no  permanent  injury  was  done,  since  the  monasteries,  by  their 
profuse  and  indiscriminate  charity,  had  undoubtedly  encouraged 
much  of  the  very  pauperism  which  they  had  relieved. 

406.  Distress  among  the  Laboring  Classes.  —  An  industrial 
revolution  was  also  in  progress  at  this  time  which  was  productive 
of  widespread  suffering.  It  had  begun  early  in  Henry’s  reign 


198  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1509-1547 


through  the  great  numbers  of  discharged  soldiers,  who  could  not 
readily  find  work. 

Sir  Thomas  More  had  given  a  striking  picture  of  their  miser¬ 
able  condition  in  his  “  Utopia,”  a  book  in  which  he  urged  the 
Government  to  consider  measures  for  their  relief;  but  the  evil 
had  since  become  much  worse.  Farmers,  having  discovered  that 
wool-growing  was  more  profitable  than  the  raising  of  grain,  had 
turned  their  fields  into  sheep-pastures ;  so  that  a  shepherd  with 
his  dog  now  took  the  place  of  several  families  of  laborers. 

This  change  brought  multitudes  of  poor  people  to  the  verge  of 
starvation ;  and  as  the  monasteries  no  longer  existed  to  hold  out 
a  helping  hand,  the  whole  realm  was  overrun  with  beggars  and 
thieves.  Bishop  Latimer,  a  noted  preacher  of  that  day,  declared 
that  if  every  farmer  should  raise  two  acres  of  hemp,  it  would  not 
make  rope  enough  to  hang  them  all.  Henry,  however,  set  to  work 
with  characteristic  vigor,  and  it  is  said  made  way  with  over  seventy 
thousand,  but  without  materially  abating  the  evil. 

407.  Execution  of  Anne  Boleyn  ;  Marriage  with  Jane  Seymour 
(1536). — Less  than  three  years  after  her  coronation,  the  new 
Queen,  Anne  Boleyn  (§§  395,  401),  for  whom  Henry  had  “  turned 
England  and  Europe  upside  down,”  was  accused  of  unfaithfulness. 
She  was  sent  a  prisoner  to  the  Tower.  A  short  time  after,  her 
head  rolled  in  the  dust,  the  light  of  its  beauty  gone  out  forever 
(r536). 

The  next  morning  Henry  married  Jane  Seymour,  Anne’s  maid 
of  honor.  Parliament  passed  an  act  of  approval,  declaring  that  it 
was  all  done  “of  the  King’s  most  excellent  goodness.”  It  also 
declared  Henry’s  two  previous  marriages  void  and  affirmed  that 
the  princesses  Mary  and  Elizabeth  were  not  lawfully  the  King’s 
daughters.  A  later  act  gave  Henry  the  extraordinary  power  of 
naming  his  successors  to  the  crown.  By  his  last  will  he  made 
Mary  and  Elizabeth  heirs  to  the  crown  in  case  all  male  and  female 
issue  by  himself  or  his  son  Edward  failed  (§  420).  Henry’s  elder 
sister,  Margaret  (see  No.  3  in  table  on  page  205),  was  passed  by 
entirely.  But  later  (1603)  Parliament  set  Henry’s  will  aside  and 
made  James  I  (a  descendant  of  Margaret)  King  of  England.  A 


1509-1547] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


199 


year  later  the  Queen  died,  leaving  a  son,  Edward.  She  was  no 
sooner  gone  than  the  King  began  looking  about  for  some  one 
to  take  her  place. 

408.  More  Marriages  (1540).  —  This  time  Thomas  Cromwell 
(§§  401-403)  had  projects  of  his  own  for  a  German  Protestant 
alliance.  He  succeeded  in  persuading  his  master  to  agree  to 
marry  Anne  of  Cleves,  a  German  princess,  whom  the  King  had 
never  seen,  but  whom  the  painter  Holbein  represented  in  a 
portrait  as  a  woman  of  surpassing  beauty. 

When  Anne  reached  England,  Henry  hurried  to  meet  her 
with  all  a  lover’s  ardor.  To  his  dismay,  he  found  that  not  only 
was  she  ridiculously  ugly,  but  that  she  could  jspeak  —  so  he  said 
—  “  nothing  but  Dutch,”  of  which  he  did  not  understand  a  word. 
Matters,  however,  had  gone  too  far  to  retract,  and  the  marriage 
was  duly  solemnized  (1540).  The  King  obtained  a  divorce 
within  six  months,  and  then  took  his  revenge  by  cutting  off 
Cromwell’s  head. 

The  same  year  (1540)  Henry  married  Catharine  Howard,  a 
fascinating  girl  still  in  her  teens,  whose  charms  so  moved  the  King 
that  it  is  said  he  was  tempted  to  have  a  special  thanksgiving 
service  prepared  to  commemorate  the  day  he  found  her. 

Unfortunately,  Catharine  had  fallen  into  dishonor  before  her 
marriage.  She  tried  hard  to  keep  the  terrible  secret,  but  finding 
it  impossible,  confessed  her  fault.  For  such  cases  Henry  had  no 
mercy.  The  Queen  was  tried  for  high  treason,  and  soon  walked 
that  road  in  which  Anne  Boleyn  had  preceded  her  (§  407). 

Not  to  be  baffled  in  his  matrimonial  experiments,  the  King 
took  Catherine  Parr  for  his  sixth  and  last  wife  (1543).  She,  too, 
would  have  gone  to  the  block,  on  a  charge  of  heresy,  had  not  her 
quick  wit  saved  her  by  a  happily  turned  compliment,  which 
flattered  the  King’s  self-conceit  as  a  profound  theologian. 

409.  Henry’s  Action  respecting  Religion. — Though  occupied 
with  these  rather  numerous  domestic  infelicities,  Henry  was  not 
idle  in  other  directions.  By  an  act  known  as  the  “Six  Articles,”  or, 
as  the  Protestants  called  it,  the  “Bloody  Act”  ( 1 5 39 ) >  King 
established  a  new  form  of  religion,  which  in  words,  at  least,  was 


200  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1509-1547 


practically  the  same  as  that  upheld  by  the  Pope,  but  with  the 
Pope  left  out. 

Geographically,  the  country  was  about  equally  divided  between 
Catholicism  and  Protestantism.  The  northern  and  western  half 
clung  to  the  ancient  faith  ;  the  southern  and  eastern,  including 
most  of  the  large  cities  where  Wycliffe’s  doctrines  had  formerly 
prevailed,  was  favorable  to  the  Reformation. 

On  the  one  hand,  Henry  prohibited  the  Lutheran  doctrine  ; 
on  the  other,  he  caused  the  Bible  to  be  translated  (1538),  and 
ordered  a  copy  to  be  chained  to  a  desk  in  every  parish  church 
in  England  ;  but  though  all  persons  might  now  freely  read  the 
Scriptures,  no  one  but  the  clergy  was  allowed  to  interpret  them. 
Later  in  his  reign,  the  King  became  alarmed  at  the  spread  of  dis¬ 
cussion  about  religious  subjects,  and  prohibited  the  reading  of  the 
Bible  by  the  “  lower  sort  of  people.” 

410.  Heresy  versus  Treason.  —  Men  now  found  themselves  in 
a  strange  and  cruel  dilemma.  If  it  was  dangerous  to  believe  too 
much,  it  was  equally  dangerous  to  believe  too  little.  Traitor  and 
heretic  were  dragged  to  execution  on  the  same  hurdle  ;  for  Henry 
burned  as  heretics  those  who  declared  their  belief  in  Protestant¬ 
ism,  and  hanged  as  traitors  those  who  acknowledged  the  authority 
of  the  Pope. 

Thus  Anne  Askew,  a  young  and  beautiful  woman,  was  nearly 
wrenched  asunder  on  the  rack,  in  the  hope  of  making  her  impli¬ 
cate  the  Queen  in  her  heresy.  She  was  afterward  burned  because 
she  insisted  that  the  bread  and  wine  used  in  the  communion  ser¬ 
vice  seemed  to  her  to  be  simply  bread  and  wine,  and  not  in  any 
sense  the  actual  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  as  the  King’s  statute  of 
the  “Six  Articles”  (§  409)  solemnly  declared. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  aged  Countess  of  Salisbury  suffered  for 
treason ;  but  with  a  spirit  matching  the  King’s,  she  refused  to 
kneel  at  the  block,  and  told  the  executioner  he  must  get  her  gray 
head  off  as  best  he  could. 

41 1.  Henry’s  Death.  —  But  the  time  was  at  hand  when  Henry 
was  to  cease  his  hangings,  beheadings,  and  marriages.  Worn  out 
with  debauchery,  he  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-six,  a  loathsome, 


1509-1547] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


201 


unwieldy,  and  helpless  mass  of  corruption.  In  his  will  he  left  a 
large  sum  of  money  to  pay  for  perpetual  prayers  for  the  repose 
of  his  soul.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  said  of  him,  “If  all  the  pictures 
and  patterns  of  a  merciless  prince  were  lost  in  the  world, 
they  might  all  again  be  painted  to  the  life  out  of  the  story  of 
this  king.” 

It  may  be  well  to  remember  this,  and  along  with  it  this  other 
saying  of  the  ablest  living  writer  on  English  constitutional  history, 
that  “  the  world  owes  some  of  its  greatest  debts  to  men  from 
whose  memory  it  recoils.” 1  The  obligation  it  is  under  to 
Henry  VIII  is  that  through  his  influence  —  no  matter  what 
the  motive  —  England  was  lifted  up  out  of  the  old  mediaeval 
ruts,  and  placed  squarely  and  securely  on  the  new  highway  of 
national  progress. 

412.  Summary.  —  In  this  reign  we  find  that  though  England 
lost  much  of  her  former  political  freedom,  yet  she  gained  that 
order  and  peace  which  came  from  the  iron  hand  of  absolute 
power.  Next,  from  the  suppression  of  the  monasteries,  and 
the  sale  or  gift  of  their  lands  to  favorites  of  the  King,  three 
results  ensued  :  (1)  a  new  nobility  was  in  great  measure  created, 
dependent  on  the  Crown  ;  (2 )  the  House  of  Lords  was  made 
less  powerful  by  the  removal  of  the  abbots  who  had  had  seats 
in  it;  (3)  pauperism  was  for  a  time  largely  increased,  and  much 
distress  caused  ;  (4)  finally,  England  completely  severed  her  con¬ 
nection  with  the  Pope,  and  established  for  the  first  time  an 
independent  National  Church,  having  the  King  as  its  head. 

EDWARD  VI -1547-1553 

413.  Bad  Government;  Seizure  of  Unenclosed  Lands;  High 
Rents  ;  Latimer’s  Sermon.  —  Edward,  son  of  Henry  VIII  by  Jane 
Seymour  (§  407),  died  at  sixteen.  In  the  first  of  his  reign  of  six 
years  the  government  was  managed  by  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of 
Somerset,  an  extreme  Protestant,  whose  intentions  were  good,  but 
who  lacked  practical  judgment.  During  the  latter  part  of  his  life 


1  Stubbs’  Constitutional  History  of  England. 


202  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1547-1553 


Edward  fell  under  the  control  of  the  Duke  of  Northumberland, 
who  was  the  head  of  a  band  of  scheming  and  profligate  men. 

They,  with  other  nobles,  seized  the  unenclosed  lands  of  the 
country  and  fenced  them  in  for  sheep-pastures,  thus  driving  into 
beggary  many  who  had  formerly  got  a  good  part  of  their  living 
from  these  commons.  At  the  same  time  farm  rents  rose  in  some 
cases  ten  and  even  twenty  fold,1  depriving  thousands  of  the  means 
of  subsistence,  and  reducing  many  who  had  been  in  comfortable 
circumstances  to  poverty. 

The  bitter  complaints  of  the  sufferers  found  expression  in  Bishop 
Latimer’s  outspoken  sermon,  preached  before  the  King,  in  which 
he  said  :  “My  father  was  a  yeoman  [small  farmer],  and  had  no 
lands  of  his  own,  only  he  had  a  farm  of  three  or  four  pounds 
[rent]  by  year,  and  hereupon  tilled  so  much  as  kept  half  a  dozen 
men  ;  he  had  walk  [pasture]  for  a  hundred  sheep,  and  my  mother 
milked  thirty  kine. 

“He  was  able  and  did  find  the  King  a  harness  [suit  of  armor] 
with  himself  and  his  horse,  until  he  came  to  the  place  where  he 
should  receive  the  King’s  wages.  I  can  remember  that  I  buckled 
his  harness  when  he  went  into  Blackheath  Field.  He  kept  me  to 
school,  or  else  I  had  not  been  able  to  have  preached  before  the 
King’s  majesty  now.  He  married  my  sisters  with  five  pounds 
.  .  .  apiece.  He  kept  hospitality  for  his  poor  neighbors,  and 
some  alms  he  gave  to  the  poor. 

“  And  all  this  he  did  off  the  said  farm,  where  he  that  now  hath 
it  payeth  sixteen  pounds  a  year  or  more,  and  is  not  able  to  do 
anything  for  his  prince,  for  himself,  nor  for  his  children,  or  give 
a  cup  of  drink  to  the  poor.”  But  as  Latimer  pathetically  said, 
“  Let  the  preacher  preach  till  his  tongue  be  worn  to  the  stumps, 
nothing  is  amended.”  2 

414.  Edward  establishes  Protestantism  (1549).  —  Henry  VIII 
had  made  the  Church  of  England  independent  of  the  Pope  (§401). 


1  This  was  owing  to  the  greed  for  land  on  the  part  of  the  mercantile  classes,  who 
had  now  acquired  wealth,  and  wished  to  become  landed  proprietors.  See  Froude’s 
England. 

2  Latimer's  first  sermon  before  King  Edward  VI,  8th  of  March,  1549. 


1 547— 1 553] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


203 


His  son  took  the  next  great  step,  and  made  it  Protestant  in 
doctrine.  At  his  desire,  Archbishop  Cranmer  compiled  a  book  of 
Common  Prayer,  taken  largely  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Prayer- 
Book  (1549).  The  first  Act  of  Uniformity,  1549  (reenacted 
1552),  obliged  all  churches  to  use  this  collection,  thereby 
establishing  Protestantism  throughout  England.1 

Edward’s  sister,  the  Princess  Mary,  was  a  firm  Catholic.  She 
refused  to  adopt  the  new  service,  saying  to  Bishop  Ridley,  who 
urged  her  to  accept  it  as  God’s  word,  “  I  cannot  tell  what  you 
call  God’s  word,  for  that  is  not  God’s  word  now  which  was  God’s 
word  in  my  father’s  time.”  It  was  at  this  period  (1552)  that  the 
Articles  of  Religion  of  the  Church  of  England  were  first  drawn 
up ;  but  they  did  not  take  their  final  form  until  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth  (§  435). 

415.  King  Edward  and  Mary  Stuart.  —  Henry  VIII  had 
attempted  to  marry  his  son  Edward  to  young  Queen  Mary  Stuart, 
daughter  of  the  King  of  Scotland,  but  the  match  had  been  broken 
off.  Edward’s  guardian  now  insisted  that  it  should  be  carried 
out.  He  invaded  Scotland  with  an  army,  and  attempted  to  effect 
the  marriage  by  force  of  arms,  at  the  battle  of  Pinkie  (1547). 

The  English  gained  a  decided  victory,  but  the  youthful  Queen, 
instead  of  giving  her  hand  to  young  'King  Edward,  left  the  country 
and  married  the  son  of  the  King  of  France.  She  will  appear  with 
melancholy  prominence  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  Had  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots  married  Edward,  we  should  perhaps  have  been 
spared  that  tragedy  in  which  she  was  called  to  play  both  the 
leading  and  the  losing  part  (§§  446-449). 

416.  Renewed  Confiscation  of  Church  Property  ;  Schools 
founded. — The  confiscation  of  such  Roman  Catholic  church 
property  as  had  been  spared  was  now  renewed  (§  404).  The  result 
of  this  and  of  the  abandonment  of  Catholicism  was  in  certain 
respects  disastrous  to  the  country.  In  this  general  break-up, 
many  who  had  been  held  in  restraint  by  the  old  forms  of  faith 
now  went  to  the  other  extreme,  and  rejected  all  religion. 

Part  of  the  money  obtained  from  the  sale  of  church  property 
1  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xiii,  §  15. 


204  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1547-1553 


was  devoted,  mainly  through  Edward’s  influence,  to  the  endow-* 
ment  of  upwards  of  forty  grammar  schools,  besides  a  number  of 
hospitals,  in  different  sections  of  the  country.  But  for  a  long 
time  the  destruction  of  the  monastic  schools,  poor  as  they  were, 
was  a  serious  blow  to  the  education  of  the  common  people. 

417.  Edward’s  London  Charities;  Christ’s  Hospital. — Just 
before  his  death  Edward  established  Christ’s  Hospital,  and  re¬ 
founded  and  renewed  the  hospitals  of  St.  Thomas  and  St.  Bar¬ 
tholomew  in  London.  Thus  “he  was  the  founder,”  says  Burnet, 
“  of  those  houses  which,  by  many  great  additions  since  that  time, 
have  risen  to  be  amongst  the  noblest  of  Europe.”  1 

Christ’s  Hospital  was,  perhaps,  the  first  Protestant  charity  school 
opened  in  England  ;  many  more  were  patterned  on  it.  It  is  gen¬ 
erally  known  as  the  Blue-Coat  School,  from  the  costume  of  the 
boys,  —  a  relic  of  the  days  of  Edward  VI.  This  consists  of  a  long 
blue  coat,  like  a  monk’s  gown,  reaching  to  the  ankles,  girded 
with  a  broad  leathern  belt,  long,  bright  yellow  stockings,  and 
buckled  shoes.  The  boys  go  bareheaded  winter  and  summer. 

An  exciting  game  of  foot-ball,  played  in  the  schoolyard  in  this 
peculiar  mediseval  dress,  seems  strangely  in  contrast  with  the 
sights  of  modern  London  streets.  It  is  as  though  the  spectator, 
by  passing  through  a  gateway,  had  gone  back  over  three  cen¬ 
turies  of  time.  Coleridge,  Lamb,  and  other  noted  men  of  letters 
were  educated  here,  and  have  left  most  interesting  reminiscences 
of  their  school  life,  especially  the  latter,  in  his  delightful  “  Essays 
of  Elia.”  2 

418.  Effect  of  Catholicism  versus  Protestantism.  —  Speaking 
of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  of  which  Edward  VI  may  be  taken 
as  a  representative,  Macaulay  remarks  that  “  it  is  difficult  to  say 
whether  England  received  most  advantage  from  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion  or  from  the  Reformation. 

“For  the  union  of  the  Saxon  and  Norman  races,  and  the 

1  Burnet,  History  of  the  Reformation  in  England. 

2  See  Lamb’s  Essays,  “Christ’s  Hospital.”  Hospital,  so  called  because  intended 
for  “poor,  fatherless  children.”  The  word  was  then  often  used  in  the  sense  of 
asylum,  or  “  home.”  The  famous  old  school  has  recently  been  removed  to  the  country 
and  the1  ancient  building  is  doomed.  Elia  (E'li-ah)  was  Lamb’s  pseudonym. 


547-1553] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


205 


abolition  of  slavery,  she  is  chiefly  indebted  to  the  influence  which 
the  priesthood  in  the  Middle  Ages  exercised  over  the  people ;  for 
political  and  intellectual  freedom,  and  for  all  the  blessings  which 
they  have  brought  in  their  train,  she  owes  most  to  the  great 
rebellion  of  the  people  against  the  priesthood.” 

419.  Summary.  — The  establishment  of  the  Protestant  faith  in 
England,  and  of  a  large  number  of  Protestant  charity  schools 
known  as  Edward  Vi’s  schools,  may  be  regarded  as  the  leading 
events  of  Edward’s  brief  reign  of  six  years. 


\ 


MARY—  1553-1558 


420.  Lady  Jane  Grey  claims  the  Crown.  —  On  the  death  of 
Edward,  Lady  Jane  Grey,  a  descendant  of  Henry  VII,  and  a 
relative  of  Edward  VI,  was  persuaded  by  her  father-in-law,  the 
Duke  of  Northumberland,  to  assume  the  crown,  which  had  been 
left  to  her  by  the  will  of  the  late  King. 

Edward’s  object  in  naming  Lady  Jane  was  to  secure  a  Protes¬ 
tant  successor,  since  his  elder  sister,  Mary,  was  a  devout  Catholic, 
while  from  his  younger  sister,  Elizabeth,  he  seems  to  have  been 
estranged.  By  birth,  though  not  directly  by  Henry  VIII’s 
will,  Mary  was  without  doubt  the  rightful  heir.1  She  received 


1  Table  showing  the  respective  claims  of  Queen  Mary  and  Lady  Jane  Grey  to  the 
crown.  By  his  last  will  Henry  VIII  left  the  crown  to  Edward  VI,  and  (in  case  he 
had  no  issue)  to  his  daughters,  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  followed  by  the  issue  of  his  sister 
Mary.  Edward  Vi’s  will  undertook  to  change  this  order  of  succession. 


1  2 

I  I 

Arthur,  b.  i486,  Henry  VIII 
d.  1  ^02,  no  issue 

I  I 

Mary,  b.  Elizabeth, 

1516,  d.  1558  b.  1533, 
d.  1603 


Henry  VII 

_ I _ 


Edward  VI, 
b.  1538, 
d- 1 553 


3 


Margaret 

James  V  of 
Scotland, 
d.  1542 

I 

Mary  Queen  of 
Scots,  b.  1542, 
d.  1587 


James  VI  of 
Scotland  and  I 
of  England, 
crowned  1603 


4 


Mary,  m. 
Charles 
Brandon 

I 

Frances 
Brandon,  m. 
Henry  Grey 

I 

Jane  Grey, 

m.  Lord  Guil¬ 
ford  Dudley, 
beheaded 
1554 


206  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1553-1558 


the  support  of  the  country,  and  Lady  Jane  Grey  and  her  husband, 
Lord  Dudley,  were  sent  to  the  dower. 

421.  Question  of  Mary’s  Marriage  ;  Wyatt’s  Rebellion  (1554). 
—  While  they  were  confined  there,  the  question  of  the  Queen’s 
marriage  came  up.  Out  of  several  candidates  for  her  hand,  Mary 
gave  preference  to  her  cousin,  Philip  II  of  Spain.  Her  choice 
was  very  unpopular,  for  it  was  known  in  England  that  Philip 
was  a  selfish  and  gloomy  fanatic,  who  cared  for  nothing  but  the 
advancement  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith. 

An  insurrection  now  broke  out,  led  by  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  the 
object  of  which  was  to  place  the  Princess  Elizabeth  on  the  throne, 
and  thus  secure  the  crown  to  Protestantism.  Lady  Jane  Grey’s 
father  was  implicated  in  the  rebellion.  The  movement  ended  in 
failure,  the  leaders  were  executed,  and  Mary  ordered  her  sister 
Elizabeth,  who  was  thought  to  be  in  the  plot,  to  be  seized  and 
imprisoned  in  the  Tower  (1554). 

A  little  later,  Lady  Jane  Grey  and  her  husband  perished  on  the 
scaffold.  The  name  JANE,  deeply  cut  in  the  stone  wall  of  the 
Beauchamp  Tower,1  remains  as  a  memorial  of  the  nine  days’ 
queen.  She  died  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  an  innocent  victim  of 
the  greatness  which  had  been  thrust  upon  her. 

422.  Mary  marries  Philip  II  of  Spain  (1554)  Efforts  to 
restore  Catholicism.  —  A  few  months  afterward  the  royal  mar¬ 
riage  was  celebrated,  but  Philip  soon  found  that  the  air  of  Eng¬ 
land  had  too  much  freedom  in  it  to  suit  his  delicate  constitution, 
and  he  returned  to  the  more  congenial  climate  of  Spain. 

From  that  time  Mary,  who  was  left  to  rule  alone,  directed  all 
her  efforts  to  the  restoration  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Her  policy 
(says  Hallam)  was  acceptable  to  a  large  part  of  the  nation.2  She 
repealed  the  legislation  of  Henry  VIII’s  and  Edward  Yl’s  reigns, 
so  far  as  it  gave  support  to  Protestantism.  She  revived  the  per¬ 
secuting  statutes  against  heretics  (§§  335,  338).  The  old  relations 

1  The  Beauchamp  Tower  is  part  of  the  Tower  of  London.  On  its  walls  are  scores 
of  names  cut  by  those  who  were  imprisoned  in  it. 

2  On  the  other  hand,  the  leaders  in  Scotland  bound  themselves  by  a  solemn  Cove¬ 
nant. (1557)  to  crush  out  all  attempts  to  reestablish  the  Catholic  faith. 


553— 1 55^] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


207 


with  Rome  were  resumed.  To  accomplish  her  object  in  sup¬ 
porting  her  religion,  the  Queen  resorted  to  the  arguments  of  the 
dungeon,  the  rack,  and  the  fagot,  and  when  Bishops  Bonner  and 
Gardiner  slackened  their  work  of  persecution  and  death,  Mary, 
half  crazed  by  Philip’s  desertion,  urged  them  not  to  stay  their 
hands. 

423.  Devices  for  reading  the  Bible.  — The  penalty  for  reading 
the  English  Scriptures,  or  for  offering  Protestant  prayers,  was 
death.  In  his  autobiography,  Benjamin  Franklin  says  that  one  of 
his  ancestors,  who  lived  in  England  in  Mary’s  reign,  adopted  the 
following  expedient  for  giving  his  family  religious  instruction.  He 
fastened  an  open  Bible  with  strips  of  tape  on  the  under  side  of  a 
stool.  When  he  wished  to  read  it  aloud  he  placed  the  stool  upside 
down  on  his  knees,  and  turned  the  pages  under  the  tape  as  he 
read  them.  One  of  the  children  stood  watching  at  the  door  to 
give  the  alarm  if  any  one  approached  ;  in  that  case,  the  stool  was 
set  quickly  on  its  feet  again  on  the  floor,  so  that  nothing  could 
be  seen. 

424".  Religious  Toleration  unknown  in  Mary’s  Age.  —  Mary 
would  doubtless  have  bravely  endured  for  her  faith  the  full  meas¬ 
ure  of  suffering  which  she  inflicted.  Her  state  of  mind  was  that 
of  all  who  then  held  strong  convictions.  Each  party  believed  it 
a  duty  to  convert  or  exterminate  the  other,  and  the  alternative 
offered  to  the  heretic  was  to  “  turn  or  burn.” 

Sir  Thomas  More,  who  gave  his  life  as  a  sacrifice  to  conscience 
in  Henry’s  reign  (§  403),  was  eager  to  put  Tyndale  to  the  torture 
for  translating  the  Bible.  Cranmer  (§  414),  who  perished  at 
Oxford  (1556),  had  been  zealous  in  sending  to  the  flames  those 
who  differed  from  him.  Even  Latimer  (§  413),  who  died  bravely 
at  the  stake,  exhorting  his  companion  Ridley  (1555)  “  to  be  of 
good  cheer  and  play  the  man,  since  they  would  light  such  a 
candle  in  England  that  day  as  in  God’s  grace  should  not  be  put 
out,”  had  abetted  the  kindling  of  slow  fires  under  men  as  honest 
and  determined  as  himself  but  on  the  opposite  side. 

In  like  spirit  Queen  Mary  kept  Smithfield  ablaze  with  martyrs, 
whose  blood  was  the  seed  of  Protestantism.  Yet  persecution 


208  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1553-1558 

under  Mary  never  reached  the  proportions  that  it  did  on  the 
continent.  At  the  most,  but  a  few  hundred  died  in  England  for 
the  sake  of  their  religion,  while  Philip  II,  during  the  last  of  his 
reign,  covered  Holland  with  the  graves  of  Protestants,  tortured 
and  put  to  cruel  deaths,  or  buried  alive,  by  tens  of  thousands. 

425.  Mary’s  Death  (1558).  —  But  Mary’s  career  was  short. 
She  died  (1558)  near  the  close  of  an  inglorious  war  with  France, 
which  ended  in  the  fall  of  Calais,  the  last  English  possession  on  the 
continent  (§  346).  It  was  a  great  blow  to  her  pride,  and  a  serious 
humiliation  to  the  country.  “  After  my  death,”  she  said,  “  you 
will  find  Calais  written  on  my  heart.”  Could  she  have  foreseen  the 
future,  her  grief  would  have  been  greater  still.  For  with  the  end 
of  her  reign  the  Pope  lost  all  power  in  England,  never  to  regain  it. 

426.  Mary  deserving  of  Pity  rather  than  Hatred.  —  Mary’s 
name  has  come  down  to  us  associated  with  an  epithet  expressive 
of  the  utmost  abhorrence  (§  394)  ;  but  she  deserves  pity  rather 
than  hatred.  Her  cruelty  was  the  cruelty  of  sincerity,  never,  as 
was  her  father’s,  the  result  of  indifference  or  caprice.  A  little 
book  of  prayers  which  she  left,  soiled  by  constant  use,  and 
stained  with  many  tears,  tells  the  story  of  her  broken  and  dis¬ 
appointed  life. 

Separated  from  her  mother,  the  unfortunate  Catharine  of  Aragon, 
when  she  was  only  sixteen,  she  was  ill-treated  by  Anne  Boleyn 
and  hated  by  her  father.  Thus  the  springtime  of  her  youth  was 
blighted. 

Her  marriage  brought  her  no  happiness ;  sickly,  ill-favored, 
childless,  unloved,  the  poor  woman  spent  herself  for  naught.  Her 
first  great  mistake  was  that  she  resolutely  turned  her  face  toward 
the  past ;  her  second,  that  she  loved  Philip  of  Spain  (§  422)  with 
all  her  heart,  soul,  and  strength,  and  so,  out  of  devotion  to  a 
bigot,  did  a  bigot’s  work,  and  earned  that  execration  which 
never  fails  to  be  a  bigot’s  reward.1 

427.  Summary. — This  reign  should  be  looked  upon  as  a 
period  of  reaction.  The  temporary  check  which  Mary  gave  to 

1  “  If  any  person  may  be  excused  for  hating  the  Reformation,  it  was  Mary.” 
—  Froude. 


*553-r 558] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


209 


Protestantism  deepened  and  strengthened  it.  Nothing  builds 
up  a  religious  faith  like  martyrdom,  and  the  next  reign  showed 
that  every  heretic  that  Mary  had  burned  helped  to  make  at 
least  a  hundred  more. 


X 


ELIZABETH —  1558-1603 


428.  Accession  of  Elizabeth.  —  Elizabeth  was  the  daughter  of 
Henry  VIII  and  Anne  Boleyn  (§  401).  At  the  time  of  Mary’s 
death  she  was  living  in  seclusion  in  Hatfield  House,  near  London, 
spending  most  of  her  time  in  studying  the  Greek  and  Latin 
authors.  When  the  news  was  brought  to  her,  she  was  deeply 
moved,  and  exclaimed,  “  It  is  the  Lord’s  doings  ;  it  is  marvellous 
in  our  eyes.”  Five  days  afterwards  she  went  up  to  London  by 
that  road  over  which  the  last  time  she  had  travelled  it  she  was 
being  carried  a  prisoner  to  the  Tower  (§  421). 

429.  Difficulty  of  Elizabeth’s  Position.  —  An  act  of  Parlia¬ 
ment  declared  Elizabeth  to  be  the  true  and  lawful  heir  to  the 
crown 1  (§  407)  ;  but  her  position  was  full  of  difficulty,  if  not 
absolute  peril.  Mary  Stuart  of  Scotland,  now  by  marriage  Queen 
of  France,2  claimed  the  English  crown  through  descent  from 
Henry  VII,  on  the  ground  that  Elizabeth,  as  daughter  of  Anne 
Boleyn,  was  not  lawfully  entitled  to  the  throne,  the  Pope  never 
having  recognized  Henry’s  second  marriage.  Both  France  and 
Rome  supported  this  claim. 

On  the  other  hand,  Philip  II  of  Spain  favored  Elizabeth,  but 
solely  because  he  hoped  to  marry  her  and  annex  her  kingdom  to 
his  dominions.  Scotland  was  divided  between  two  religious  fac¬ 
tions,  and  its  attitude  as  an  independent  kingdom  could  hardly  be 
called  friendly.  Ireland  was  a  nest  of  desperate  rebels,  ready  to 
join  any  attack  on  an  English  sovereign. 

430.  Religious  Parties.  —  But  more  dangerous  than  all,  Eng¬ 
land  was  divided  in  its  religion.  In  the  north,  many  noble 


1  See  genealogical  table  on  page  205. 

2  After  Elizabeth,  Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots,  stood  next  in  order  of  succession, 
so  far  as  birth  could  give  her  that  right.  See  table  on  page  205. 


2  10  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1558-1603 


families  stood  by  the  old  faith,  and  hoped  to  see  the  Pope’s 
power  restored.  In  the  towns  of  the  southeast,  a  majority 
favored  the  Protestant  Church  of  England  as  it  had  been 
organized  under  Edward  VI. 

Besides  these  two  great  parties  there  were  two  more,  who  made 
up  in  zeal  and  determination  what  they  lacked  in  numbers.  One 
was  the  Jesuits;  the  other,  the  Puritans.  The  Jesuits  were  a 
new  Roman  Catholic  order,  banded  together  to  support  the 
Church  and  to  destroy  heresy ;  openly  or  secretly  their  agents 
penetrated  every  country ;  it  was  believed  that  they  hesitated 
at  nothing  to  gain  their  ends. 

The  Puritans  were  Protestants  who,  like  John  Calvin  of  Geneva 
and  John  Knox  of  Edinburgh,  were  bent  on  cleansing  or  “purify¬ 
ing"  the  reformed  faith  from  every  vestige  of  Catholicism.  Many 
of  them  were  what  the  rack  and  the  stake  had  naturally  made 
them,  —  hard,  fearless,  narrow,  bitter. 

In  Scotland  they  had  got  entire  possession  of  the  government ; 
in  England  they  were  steadily  gaining  ground.  They  were  ready 
to  recognize  the  Queen  as  head  of  the  State  Church,  they  even 
wished  that  all  persons  should  be  compelled  to  worship  as  the 
Government  prescribed,  but  they  protested  against  such  a  church 
as  Elizabeth  and  the  bishops  then  maintained. 

431.  The  Queen’s  Choice  of  Counsellors.  - — Her  policy  from 
the  beginning  was  one  of  compromise.  In  order  to  conciliate 
the  Catholic  party,  she  retained  eleven  of  her  sister  Mary’s 
counsellors.  But  she  added  to  them  Sir  William  Cecil  (Lord 
Burleigh),  who  was  her  chief  adviser ; 1  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  and, 
later,  Sir  Francis  Walsingham,  with  others  who  were  favorable  to 
the  reformed  faith. 

On  his  appointment,  Elizabeth  said  to  Cecil,  “  This  judgment 
I  have  of  you,  that  you  will  not  be  corrupted  with  any  gifts,  that 
you  will  be  faithful  to  the  State,  and  that  without  respect  to  my 
private  will  you  will  give  me  that  counsel  which  you  think  best.” 
Cecil  served  the  Queen  until  his  death,  forty  years  afterward. 
The  almost  implicit  obedience  with  which  Elizabeth  followed  his 

1  1  See  Macaulay’s  fine  essay  on  Cecil  (Ses'  il),  Lord  Burleigh. 


1558-1603] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


21  I 


advice  sufficiently  proves  that  he  was  the  real  power  not  only 
behind,  but  generally  above,  the  throne. 

432.  The  Coronation  (1559). — The  bishops  were  Roman 
Catholic,  and  Elizabeth  found  it  difficult  to  get  one  to  perform 
the  coronation  services.  At  length  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle  con¬ 
sented,  but  only  on  condition  that  the  Queen  should  take  the 
ancient  form  of  coronation  oath,  by  which  she  virtually  bound 
herself  to  support  the  Church  of  Rome.1  To  this  Elizabeth 
agreed,  and  having  consulted  her  astrologer,  Dr.  Dee,  to  fix  a 
lucky  day  for  the  ceremony,  she  was  crowned  by  his  advice  on 
Sunday  (Jan.  15,  1559). 

433.  Changes  in  the*  Church  Service;  Religious  Legislation 
(1559). — The  late  Queen  Mary,  besides  having  repealed  the  legis¬ 
lation  of  the  two  preceding  reigns,  in  so  far  as  it  was  opposed  to 
her  own  religious  convictions  (§422),  had  restored  the  Roman 
Catholic  Latin  Prayer-Book  (§  414).  At  Elizabeth’s  coronation 
a  petition  was  presented  stating  that  it  was  the  custom  to  release 
a  certain  number  of  prisoners  on  such  occasions.  The  petitioners, 
therefore,  begged  her  majesty  to  set  at  liberty  the  four  evangel¬ 
ists,  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  and  also  the  apostle  Paul, 
who  had  been  for  some  time  shut  up  in  a  strange  language.  The 
English  Service-Book,  with  some  slight  changes,  was  accordingly 
reinstated,  and  Parliament  repealed  the  laws  respecting  religion 
passed  under  the  late  Queen  Mary. 

A  bill  was  soon  after  passed  (1559)  (the  third  Act  of  Uni¬ 
formity  [§  414])  which  required  all  clergymen,  under  penalty  of 
imprisonment  for  life,  to  use  that  Service-Book  and  no  other. 
The  same  act  imposed  a  heavy  fine  on  all  persons  who  failed  to 
attend  the  Church  of  England  on  Sundays  or  holidays. 

At  that  time  Church  and  State  were  supposed  to  be  insepa¬ 
rable.  No  country  in  Europe,  not  even  Protestant  Germany, 
could  then  conceive  the  idea  of  their  existing  apart.  Whoever, 

1  By  this  oath,  every  English  sovereign  from  William  the  Conqueror  to  Eliza¬ 
beth,  and  even  as  late  as  James  II.  with  the  single  exception  of  Edward  VI,  swore 
to  “  preserve  religion  in  the  same  state  as  did  Edward  the  Confessor.”  This  was 
changed  to  support  Protestantism  in  1688. 


212  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1558-1603 


therefore,  refused  to  sustain  the  established  form  of  worship  was 
looked  upon  as  a  rebel  against  the  government. 

To  try  such  rebels,  a  special  court  was  organized  by  Elizabeth 
(1583),  called  the  High  Commission  Court.1  By  it  many  Catho¬ 
lics  were  tortured  and  imprisoned  for  persisting  in  their  allegiance 
to  the  Pope.  About  two  hundred  priests  and  Jesuits  were  put  to 
death.  A  number  of  Puritans,  also,  were  executed  for  seditious 
publications,  while  others  were  imprisoned  or  banished. 

434.  Act  of  Supremacy  (1559).  —  No  sooner  was  the  Queen’s 
accession  announced  to  the  Pope  than  he  declared  her  illegitimate 
(§  401),  and  ordered  her  to  lay  aside  her  crown  and  submit  herself 
entirely  to  his  guidance.  Such  a  demand  was  a  signal  for  battle. 
However  much  attached  the  larger  part  of  the  nation,  especially 
the  country  people,  may  have  been  to  the  religion  of  their  fathers, 
yet  they  intended  to  support  the  Queen. 

The  temper  of  Parliament  manifested  itself  in  the  immediate 
reenactment  of  the  Act  of  Supremacy.  It  was  essentially  the 
same,  “  though  with  its  edge  a  little  blunted,”  as  that  which, 
under  Henry,  had  freed  England  from  the  dominion  of  Rome 
(§  401).  It  declared  Elizabeth  not  “supreme  head”  but 
“  supreme  governor  ”  of  the  Church.  Later,  the  act  was  made 
more  stringent  (1563). 

To  this  act,  every  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  was 
obliged  to  subscribe ;  thus  all  Catholics  were  excluded  from 
among  them.  The  Lords,  however,  not  being  an  elective  body, 
were  excused  from  the  obligation. 

435.  The  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (1563)  ;  the  Queen’s  Religion. 
—  Half  a  year  later,  the  religious  belief  of  the  English  Church, 
which  had  been  first  formulated  under  Edward  VI  (§414),  was 
revised  and  reduced  to  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  which  consti¬ 
tute  it  at  the  present  time.2  But  the  real  value  of  the  religious 

1  High  Commission  Court :  so  called,  because  originally  certain  church  dignita¬ 
ries  were  appointed  commissioners  to  inquire  into  heresies  and  kindred  matters. 
See,  too,  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xiv,  §  15. 

2  By  the  Clerical  Subscription  Act  (1S66),  all  that  is  now  required,  even  of  the 
English  clergy',  is  a  general  declaration  of  assent  to  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  and  the 
Prayer-Book. 


1558-1603] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


213 


revolution  which  was  taking  place  did  not  lie  in  the  substitution 
of  one  creed  for  another,  but  in  the  new  spirit  of  inquiry,  and 
the  new  freedom  of  thought  which  that  change  awakened. 

As  for  Elizabeth  herself,  she  seems  to  have  had  no  deep  and 
abiding  convictions  on  these  matters.  Her  education  and  her 
political  interests  made  her  favor  Protestantism,  but  to  the  end 
of  her  life  she  kept  up  some  Catholic  forms.  A  crucifix,  with 
lighted  candles  in  front  of  it,  hung  in  her  private  chapel,  before 
which  she  prayed  to  the  Virgin  as  fervently  as  her  sister  Mary 
had  ever  done. 

436.  The  Nation  halting  between  Two  Opinions.  —  In  this 
double  course  she  represented  the  majority  of  the  nation,  which 
hesitated  about  committing  itself  fully  to  either  side.  Men  were 
not  wanting  who  were  ready  to  lay  down  their  lives  for  conscience’ 
sake,  but  they  were  by  no  means  numerous. 

Many  sympathized  at  heart  with  the  notorious  Vicar  of  Bray, 
who  kept  his  pulpit  under  the  whole  or  some  part  of  the  suc¬ 
cessive  reigns  of  Henry,  Edward,  Mary,  and  Elizabeth,  changing 
his  theology  with  each  change  of  rule.  When  taunted  as  a  turn¬ 
coat,  he  replied,  “  Not  so,  for  I  have  always  been  true  to  my 
principles,  which  are  to  live  and  die  Vicar  of  Bray.”  1 

Though  there  was  nothing  morally  noble  in  such  halting  between 
two  opinions,  and  facing  both  ways,  yet  it  saved  England  for  the 
time  from  that  worst  of  all  calamities,  a  religious  civil  war,  such 
as  rent  France  in  pieces,  drenched  her  fair  fields  with  the  blood 
of  Catholics  and  Protestants,  split  Germany  and  Italy  into  petty 
states,  and  ended  in  Spain  in  the  triumph  of  the  Inquisition  and 
intellectual  death.2 

437.  The  Question  of  the  Queen’s  Marriage.  —  Elizabeth 
showed  the  same  tact  with  regard  to  marriage  that  she  did  with 
regard  to  religion.  Her  first  Parliament,  realizing  that  the  welfare 


1  “  For  this  as  law  I  will  maintain 

Until  my  dying  day,  sir, 

That  whatsoever  king  shall  reign, 
I  ’ll  be  Vicar  of  Bray,  sir.” 

2  Gardiner’s  History  of  England. 


2  14  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1558-1603 


of  the  country  depended  largely  on  whom  the  Queen  should 
marry,  begged  her  to  consider  the  question  of  taking  a  husband. 
Her  reply  was  that  she  had  resolved  to  live  and  die  a  maiden 
queen.  When  further  pressed,  she  returned  answers  that,  like 
the  ancient  oracles,  might  be  interpreted  either  way. 

The  truth  was,  that  Elizabeth  saw  the  difficulty  of  her  position 
better  than  any  one  else.  The  choice  of  her  heart  at  that  time 
would  have  been  the  Protestant  Earl  of  Leicester,  but  she  knew 
that  to  take  him  as  consort  would  be  to  incur  the  enmity  of  the 
great  Catholic  powers  of  Europe.  On  the  other  hand,  if  she 
accepted  a  Catholic,  she  would  inevitably  alienate  a  large  and 
influential  number  of  her  own  subjects. 

In  this  dilemma  she  resolved  to  keep  both  sides  in  a  state  of 
hopeful  expectation.  Philip  II  of  Spain,  who  had  married  her 
sister  Mary,  made  overtures  to  Elizabeth.  She  kept  him  waiting 
in  uncertainty  until  at  last  his  ambassador  lost  all  patience, 
and  declared  that  the  Queen  was  possessed  with  ten  thousand 
devils. 

Later,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  a  son  of  Henry  II  of  France,  pro¬ 
posed.  He  was  favorably  received,  but  the  country  became  so 
alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  having  a  Catholic  king,  that  Stubbs,  a 
Puritan  lawyer,  published  a  coarse  and  violent  pamphlet  denounc¬ 
ing  the  marriage.1  For  this  attack  his  right  hand  was  cut  off ; 
as  it  fell,  says  an  eye-witness,2 * 4  he  seized  his  hat  with  the  other 
hand,  and  waved  it,  shouting,  “  God  save  Queen  Elizabeth  !  ” 
That  act  was  an  index  to  the  popular  feeling.  Men  stood  by  the 
Crown  even  when  they  condemned  its  policy,  determined,  at  all 
hazards,  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the  nation. 

438.  The  Queen  a  Coquette.  —  During  all  this  time  the  court 
buzzed  with  whispered  scandals.  Elizabeth  was  by  nature  a  con¬ 
firmed  coquette.  The  Earl  of  Leicester,  the  Earl  of  Essex,  and 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh  were  by  turns  her  favorites.  Over  her  relations 


1  Stubbs’  pamphlet  was  entitled  “  The  Discovery  of  the  Gaping  Gulf,  wherein 

England  is  likely  to  be  swallowed  up  by  another  French  marriage,  unless  the  Lords 

forbid  the  bans  by  letting  her  see  the  sin  and  punishment  thereof.” 

4  Camden’s  Annals,  1581. 


558-1603] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


215 


with  the  first  there  hangs  the  terrible  shadow  of  the  murder  of 
his  wife,  the  beautiful  Amy  Robsart.1 

Her  vanity  was  as  insatiable  as  it  was  ludicrous.  She  issued  a 
proclamation  forbidding  any  one  to  sell  her  picture,  lest  it  should 
fail  to  do  her  justice.  She  was  greedy  of  flattery  even  when  long 
past  sixty,  and  there  was  a  sting  of  truth  in  the  letter  which  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots  wrote  her,  saying,  “  Your  aversion  to  marriage 
proceeds  from  your  not  wishing  to  lose  the  liberty  of  compelling 
people  to  make  love  to  you.” 

439.  Violence  of  Temper  ;  Crooked  Policy.  —  In  temper,  Eliza¬ 
beth  was  arbitrary,  fickle,  and  passionate.  When  her  blood  was 
up,  she  would  swear  like  a  trooper,  spit  on  a- courtier’s  new  velvet 
suit,  beat  her  maids  of  honor,  and  box  Essex’s  ears.  She  wrote 
abusive,  and  even  profane,  letters  to  high  church  dignitaries,'2  and 
openly  insulted  the  wife  of  Archbishop  Parker,  because  she  did 
not  believe  in  a  married  clergy. 

The  age  in  which  Elizabeth  lived  was  preeminently  one  of  craft 
and  intrigue.  The  kings  of  that  day  endeavored  to  get  by  fraud 
what  their  less  polished  predecessors  got  by  force.  At  this  game 
of  double  dealing  Elizabeth  had  few  equals  and  no  superior.  So 
profound  was  her  dissimulation  that  her  most  confidential  advisers 
never  felt  quite  sure  that  she  was  not  deceiving  them.  In  her 
diplomatic  relations  she  never  hesitated  at  a  lie  if  it  would  serve 
her  purpose,  and  when  the  falsehood  was  discovered,  she  always 
had  another  and  more  plausible  one  ready  to  take  its  place. 

440.  Her  Knowledge  of  Men;  the  Monopolies. — The  Queen’s 
real  ability  lay  in  her  instinctive  perception  of  the  needs  of  the 
age,  and  in  her  power  of  self-adjustment  to  them.  Elizabeth 
never  made  public  opinion,  but  watched  it  and  followed  it.  She 
knew  an  able  man  at  sight,  and  had  the  happy  faculty  of  attach¬ 
ing  such  men  to  her  service.  By  nature  she  was  both  irresolute 
and  impulsive  ;  but  her  sense  was  good  and  her  judgment  clear. 


1  See  the  De  Quadra  Letter  in  Froude’s  England. 

2  For  the  famous  letter  to  the  bishop  of  Ely  attributed  to  Elizabeth,  see  Hallam, 
Froude,  and  Creighton  ;  but  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  (“  Elizabeth  ”) 
calls  it  a  forgery. 


21 6  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1558-1603 


She  could  tell  when  she  was  well  advised,  and  although  she  fumed 
and  blustered,  she  yielded. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  next  best  thing  to  having  a  good  rule 
is  to  know  when  to  break  it.  Elizabeth  always  knew  when  to 
change  her  policy.  No  matter  how  obstinate  she  was,  she  saw 
the  point  where  obstinacy  became  dangerous.  In  order  to  enrich 
Raleigh  and  her  numerous  other  favorites,  she  granted  them  the 
exclusive  right  to  deal  in  certain  articles.  These  privileges  were 
called  “  monopolies.” 

They  finally  came  to  comprise  almost  everything  that  could  be 
bought  or  sold,  from  French  wines  to  second-hand  shoes.  The 
effect  was  to  raise  prices  so  as  to  make  even  the  common  neces¬ 
saries  of  life  excessively  dear.  A  great  outcry  finally  arose ; 
Parliament  requested  the  Queen  to  abolish  the  “  monopolies  ”  ; 
she  hesitated,  but  when  she  saw  their  determined  attitude  she 
gracefully  granted  the  petition. 

441.  The  Adulation  of  the  Court.  - — No  English  sovereign  was 
so  popular  or  so  praised.  The  great  writers  and  the  great  men  of 
that  day  vied  with  each  other  in  their  compliments  to  her  beauty, 
her  wisdom,  and  her  wit.  She  lived  in  an  atmosphere  of  splendor, 
of  pleasure,  and  of  adulation.  Her  reign  was  full  of  pageants, 
progresses,1  and  feasts,  like  those  which  Scott  describes  in  his 
delightful  novel,  “  Kenilworth.” 

Spenser  composed  his  poem,  the  “  Faerie  Queen,”  as  he  said, 
to  extol  “  the  glorious  person  of  our  sovereign  Queen,”  whom  he 
blasphemously  compared  to  the  Godhead.  Shakespeare  is  reported 
to  have  written  a  play2  for  her  amusement,  and  in  his  “  Midsum¬ 
mer  Night’s  Dream”  he  addresses  her  as  the  “fair  vestal  in  the 
West.”  The  common  people  were  equally  full  of  enthusiasm,  and 
loved  to  sing  and  shout  the  praises  of  their  “  good  Queen  Bess.” 
After  her  death  at  Richmond,  when  her  body  was  being  conveyed 
down  the  Thames  to  Westminster,  an  extravagant  eulogist  declared 
that  the  very  fishes  that  followed  the  funeral  barge  “wept  out 
their  eyes  and  swam  blind  after  !  ” 

1  Progresses :  state-journeys  made  with  great  pomp  and  splendor. 

2  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor. 


558-1603] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


217 


442.  Grandeur  of  the  Age;  More’s  “  Utopia.”  — The  reign  of 
Elizabeth  was,  in  fact,  Europe’s  grandest  age.  It  was  a  time  when 
everything  was  bursting  into  life  and  color.  The  world  had  sud¬ 
denly  grown  larger ;  it  had  opened  toward  the  east  in  the  revival 
of  classical  learning  ;  it  had  opened  toward  the  west,  and  dis¬ 
closed  a  continent  of  unknown  extent  and  unimaginable  resources. 

About  twenty  years  after  Cabot  had  discovered  the  mainland  of 
America  (§  387),  Sir  Thomas  More  (§§  391,  403)  wrote  a  remark¬ 
able  work  of  fiction,  in  Latin  (1516),  called  “Utopia  ”  1  (the  Land 
of  Nowhere).  In  it  he  pictured  an  ideal  commonwealth,  where 
all  men  were  equal ;  where  none  were  poor ;  where  perpetual 
peace  prevailed  ;  where  there  was  absolute  freedom  of  thought ; 
where  all  were  contented  and  happy.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  “  Golden 
Age  ”  come  back  to  earth  again. 

Such  a  book,  now  translated  into  English  (1551),  suited  such  a 
time,  for  Elizabeth’s  reign  was  one  of  adventure,  of  poetry,  of 
luxury,  of  rapidly  increasing  wealth.  When  men  looked  across 
the  Atlantic,  their  imaginations  were  stimulated,  and  the  most 
extravagant  hopes  did  not  appear  too  good  to  be  true.  Courtiers 
and  adventurers  dreamed  of  fountains  of  youth  in  Florida,  of  silver 
mines  in  Brazil,  of  rivers  in  Virginia,  whose  pebbles  were  precious 
stones.2  Thus  all  were  dazzled  with  visions  of  sudden  riches  and 
renewed  life. 

443.  Change  in  Mode  of  Life.  — England,  too,  was  undergoing 
transformation.  Once,  a  nobleman’s  residence  had  been  simply  a 
square  stone  fortress,  built  for  safety  only  ;  but  now  that  the  land 
was  at  peace  and  the  old  feudal  barons  destroyed  (§§  368,  380), 
there  was  no  need  of  such  precaution.  Men  were  no  longer  con¬ 
tent  to  live  shut  up  in  sombre  strongholds,  surrounded  with  moats 
of  stagnant  water,  or  in  meanly  built  houses,  where  the  smoke 

1  Utopia  was  published  in  Latin  about  1516.  It  was  first  translated  into 
English  in  1551. 

2  “  Why,  man,  all  their  dripping-pans  [in  Virginia]  are  pure  gould ;  ...  all  the 
prisoners  they  take  are  feterd  in  gold;  and  for  rubies  and  diamonds,  they  goe  forth 
on  holydayes  and  gather  ’hem  by  the  sea-shore,  to  hang  on  their  children’s  coates.” — 
Eastward  Hoe ,  a  play  by  John  Marston  and  others,  “as  it  was  playd  in  the  Black- 
friers  [Theatre]  by  the  Children  of  her  Maiesties  Revels.”  (1603?) 


218  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1558-1603 


curled  around  the  rafters  for  want  of  chimneys  by  which  to  escape, 
while  the  wind  whistled  through  the  unglazed  latticed  windows. 

Mansions  and  stately  manor-houses  like  Hatfield,  Knowle,  and' 
the  “  Bracebridge  Hall  ”  of  Washington  Irving,1  rose  instead  of 
castles,  and  hospitality,  not  exclusion,  became  the  prevailing  cus¬ 
tom.  The  introduction  of  chimneys  brought  the  cheery  comfort 
of  the  English  fireside,  while  among  the  wealthy,  carpets,  tapestry, 
and  silver  plate  took  the  place  of  floors  strewed  with  rushes,  of 
bare  walls,  and  of  tables  covered  with  pew'ter  or  w'ooden  dishes. 

An  old  writer,  lamenting  these  innovations,  says  :  “  When  our 
houses  were  built  of  willow,  then  wTe  had  oaken  men  ;  but,  now 
that  our  houses  are  made  of  oak,  our  men  have  not  only  become 
willow,  but  many  are  altogether  of  straw,  which  is  a  sore  affliction.” 

444.  An  Age  of  Adventure  and  of  Daring.  —  But  they  wrere 
not  all  of  straw,  for  that  was  a  period  of  daring  enterprise. 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh  planted  the  first  English  colony,  which  the 
maiden  Queen  named  Virginia,  in  honor  of  herself.  It  proved 
unsuccessful,  but  he  said,  “  I  shall  live  to  see  it  an  English  nation 
yet  ”  ;  and  he  did. 

Frobisher  explored  the  coasts  of  Labrador  and  Greenland.  Sir 
Francis  Drake  sailed  into  the  Pacific,  spent  a  winter  in  or  near 
the  harbor  of  San  Francisco,  and  ended  his  voyage  by  circum¬ 
navigating  the  globe.2  In  the  East,  London  merchants  had 
founded  the  East  India  Company,  the  beginning  of  English 
dominion  in  Asia ;  while  in  Holland,  Sir  Philip  Sydney  gave  his 
life-blood  for  the  cause  of  Protestantism. 

445.  Literature.  —  It  was  an  age,  too,  not  only  of  brave  deeds 
but  of  high  thoughts.  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  and  Jonson  were 
making  English  literature  the  noblest  of  all  literatures.  Francis 
Bacon,  son  of  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  of  Elizabeth’s  council,  was 
giving  a  wholly  different  direction  to  education.  He  taught  men 
in  his  newr  philosophy,  that  in  order  to  use  the  forces  of  nature 
they  must  learn  by  observation  and  experiment  to  know  nature 
herself;  “for,”  said  he,  “knowledge  is  power.” 

1  Aston  Hall,  in  the  vicinity  of  Birmingham,  is  believed  to  be  the  original  of 
Irving's  “  Bracebridge  Hall.”  2  See  Map  No.  13,  facing  page  218. 


Showing  the  English  discoveries  in  America  in  the  15th,  16th,  and  17th  centuries, 
with  a  part  of  Drake’s  voyage  round  the  globe  in  1577-1579. 


1 558-1603] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


2  19 

446.  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  claims  the  Crown  (1561).  —  For 

England  it  was  also  an  age  of  great  and  constant  peril.  Eliza¬ 
beth’s  entire  reign  was  undermined  with  plots  against  her  life  and 
against  the  life  of  the  Protestant  faith.  No  sooner  was  one  con¬ 
spiracy  detected  and  suppressed  than  a  new  one  sprang  up. 
Perhaps  the  most  formidable  of  these  was  the  effort  which  Mary 
Stuart  (Queen  of  Scots)  made  to  supplant  her  English  rival. 
Shortly  after  Elizabeth’s  accession,  Mary’s  husband,  the  King  of 
France,  died.  She  returned  to  Scotland  (1561)  and  there  assumed 
the  Scottish  crown,  at  the  same  time  asserting  her  right  to  the 
English  throne.1 

447.  Mary  marries  Darnley ;  his  Murder.  — A  few  years  later 
she  married  Lord  Darnley,  who  became  jealous  of  Mary’s  Italian 
private  secretary,  Rizzio,2  and,  with  the  aid  of  accomplices,  seized 
him  in  her  presence,  dragged  him  into  an  ante-chamber,  and  there 
stabbed  him. 

The  next  year  Darnley  was  murdered.  It  was  believed  that 
Mary  and  the  Earl  of  Bothwell,  whom  she  soon  after  married, 
were  guilty  of  the  crime.  The  people  rose  and  cast  her  into 
prison,  and  forced  her  to  abdicate  in  favor  of  her  infant  son,  • 
James  VI. 

448.  Mary  escapes  to  England  (1568);  Plots  against  Eliza¬ 
beth  and  Protestantism. — Mary  escaped  and  fled  to  England. 
Elizabeth,  fearing  she  might  pass  over  to  France  and  stir  up  war, 
confined  her  in  Bolton  Castle.3  During  her  imprisonment  else¬ 
where  she  became  implicated  in  a  plot  for  assassinating  the  English 
Queen  (who  had  meditated  her  death)  and  seizing  the  reins  of 
government  in  behalf  of  herself  and  the  Jesuits. 

It  was  a  time  when  the  Protestant  faith  seemed  everywhere 
marked  for  destruction.  In  France  evil  counsellors  had  induced 
the  King  to  order  a  massacre  of  the  Reformers,  and  on  St.  Bar¬ 
tholomew’s  Day  thousands  were  slain.  The  Pope,  misinformed 

1  See  table,  §  420.  Mary’s  claim  was  based  on  the  fact  that  the  Pope  had  never 
recognized  Henry  VIII’s  marriage  to  Anne  Boleyn,  Elizabeth’s  mother,  as  lawful, 
and  that  she  was  recognized  as  a  successor  to  the  crown  by  the  will  of  Henry  VIII. 

2  Rizzio  (Rit'se-o).  3  Bolton  Castle,  Yorkshire. 


220  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [155S-1603 


in  the  matter,  ordered  a  solemn  thanksgiving  for  the  slaughter, 
and  struck  a  gold  medal  to  commemorate  it.1  Philip  of  Spain, 
whose  cold,  impassive  face  scarcely  ever  relaxed  into  a  smile, 
now  laughed  outright.  Still  more  recently,  William  the  Silent,  who 
had  driven  out  the  Catholics  from  a  part  of  the  Netherlands,2  had 
been  assassinated  by  a  Jesuit  fanatic. 

449.  Elizabeth  beheads  Mary  (1587). — Under  these  circum¬ 
stances,  Elizabeth,  aroused  to  a  sense  of  her  danger,  reluctantly 
signed  the  Scottish  Queen’s  death  warrant,  and  Mary,  after  nine¬ 
teen  years’  imprisonment,  was  beheaded  at  Fotheringay  Castle.3 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  her  execution  was  brought  to  the  Queen, 
she  became  alarmed  at  the  political  consequences  the  act  might 
have  in  Europe.  With  her  usual  duplicity  she  bitterly  upbraided 
the  minister  who  had  advised  it,  and  throwing  Davidson,  her 
secretary,  into  the  Tower,  hned  him  ^10,000,  the  payment  of 
which  reduced  him  to  beggary.4 

Not  satisfied  with  this,  Elizabeth  even  had  the  effrontery  to 
write  a  letter  of  condolence  to  Mary’s  son  (James  VI),  declaring 
that  his  mother  had  been  beheaded  by  mistake  !  Yet  facts  prove 
that  not  only  had  Elizabeth  determined  to  put  Mary  to  death,  — 
a  measure  whose  justice  is  still  vehemently  disputed,  —  but  she 
had  suggested  to  her  keeper  that  it  might  be  expedient  to  have 
her  privately  murdered. 

450.  The  Spanish  Armada.  —  Mary  was  hardly  under  ground 
when  a  new  and  greater  danger  threatened  the  country.  At  her 
death,  the  Scottish  Queen,  disgusted  with  her  mean-spirited  son 
James,5  bequeathed  her  dominions,  including  her  claim  to  the 
English  throne,  to  Philip  II  of  Spain.  He  was  then  the  most 
powerful  sovereign  in  Europe,  ruling  over  a  territory  equal  to  that 
of  the  Roman  Empire  in  its  greatest  extent. 

Philip  resolved  to  invade  England,  conquer  it,  annex  it  to  his 

1  See  the  Leading  Facts  of  French  History. 

2  Netherlands,  or  Low  Countries :  now  represented  in  great  part  by  Belgium  and 
Holland. 

3  Fotheringay  Castle,  Northamptonshire,  demolished  by  James  I. 

4  £  1 0,000 :  a  sum  probably  equal  to  more  than  $300,000  now. 

5  James  had  deserted  his  mother,  and  accepted  a  pension  from  Elizabeth. 


THE  SPANISH  ARMADA 


1558-1603] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


22  I 


own  possessions,  and  restore  the  religion  of  Rome.  To  accom¬ 
plish  this,  he  began  fitting  out  the  “  Invincible  Armada,”  1  an 
immense  fleet,  intended  to  carry  twenty  thousand  soldiers,  and  to 
receive  on  its  way  reinforcements  of  thirty  thousand  more  from 
the  Spanish  army  in  the  Netherlands.  But  in  the  end,  the  King 
of  Spain  gave  the  command  of  the  Armada  to  a  man  who  openly 
declared  that  he  knew  nothing  about  the  sea  and  nothing  about  war. 

451.  Drake’s  Expedition;  Sailing  of  the  Armada  (1588). — 
Sir  Francis  Drake  determined  to  check  Philip’s  preparations.  He 
heard  that  the  enemy’s  fleet  was  gathered  at  Cadiz.  He  sailed 
there,  and  in  spite  of  all  opposition  effectually  “  singed  the 
Spanish  King’s  beard,”  as  he  said,  by  burning  and  otherwise 
destroying  more  than  a  hundred  ships. 

This  so  crippled  the  expedition  that  it  had  to  be  given  up  for 
that  year,  but  the  next  summer  avast  armament  set  sail.  Motley  2 
says  it  consisted  of  ten  squadrons,  of  more  than  one  hundred  and 
thirty  ships,  carrying  upwards  of  three  thousand  cannon. 

The  impending  peril  thoroughly  roused  England.  Both  Cath¬ 
olics  and  Protestants  rose  to  defend  their  country  and  their  Queen. 

452.  The  Battle,  1588.  — The  English  sea  forces  under  Lord 
High  Admiral  Howard,  a  stanch  Catholic,  and  Sir  Francis  Drake, 
second  in  command,  were  assembled  at  Plymouth,  watching  for 
the  enemy.  When  the  long-looked-for  fleet  came  in  sight,  beacon 
fires  were  lighted  on  the  hills  to  give  the  alarm. 

“  For  swift  to  east  and  swift  to  west  the  ghastly  war-flame  spread  ; 

High  on  St.  Michael’s  Mount  it  shone  :  it  shone  on  Beachy  Head. 

Far  on  the  deep  the  Spaniard  saw,  along  each  southern  shire, 

Cape  beyond  cape,  in  endless  range,  those  twinkling  points  of  fire.”  3 

The  enemy’s  ships  moved  steadily  towards  the  coast  in  the  form 
of  a  crescent  seven  miles  across;  but  Howard,  Drake,  Hawkins, 
Raleigh,  and  other  noted  captains,  were  ready  to  receive  them. 
With  their  fast-sailing  cruisers  they  sailed  around  the  unwieldy 
Spanish  war-ships,  firing  four  shots  to  their  one,  and  “  harassing 

1  Armada  :  an  armed  fleet. 

2  See  Motley’s  United  Netherlands,  II,  465  ;  compare  Froude’s  England,  XII, 

466,  and  Laughton’s  Armada  (State  Papers),  xl-lvii.  3  Macaulay’s  Armada. 


222  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1558-1603 


them  as  a  swarm  of  wasps  would  a  bear.”  .Several  of  the  enemy’s 
vessels  were  captured,  and  one  blown  up.  At  last  the  commander 
sailed  for  Calais  to  repair  damages  and  take  a  fresh  start.  The 
English  followed.  When  night  came  on,  Drake  sent  eight  blazing 
fire-ships  to  drift  down  among  the  Armada  as  it  lay  at  anchor. 
Thoroughly  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  being  burned  where  they 
lay,  the  Spaniards  cut  their  cables  and  made  sail  for  the  north. 

453.  Destruction  of  the  Armada,  1588;  Elizabeth  at  Tilbury, 
and  at  St.  Paul’s. — They  were  hotly  pursued  by  the  English, 
who,  having  lost  but  a  single  vessel  in  the  fight,  might  have  cut 
them  to  pieces,  had  not  the  Queen’s  suicidal  economy  stinted 
them  in  both  powder  and  provisions.  Meanwhile  the  Spanish 
fleet  kept  moving  northward.  The  wind  increased  to  a  gale,  the 
gale  to  a  furious  storm.  The  commander  of  the  Armada  attempted 
to  go  around  Scotland  and  return  home  that  way ;  but  ship  after 
ship  was  driven  ashore  and  wrecked  on  the  wild  and  rocky  coast 
of  Western  Ireland.  On  one  strand,  less  than  five  miles  long, 
over  a  thousand  corpses  were  counted.  Those  who  escaped  the 
waves  met  death  by  the  hands  of  the  inhabitants.  Of  the  magnifi¬ 
cent  fleet  which  had  sailed  so  proudly  from  Spain  only  fifty-three 
vessels  returned,  and  they  were  but  half  manned  by  exhausted 
crews  stricken  by  pestilence  and  death.  Thus  ended  Philip’s 
boasted  attack  on  England. 

When  all  danger  was  past  Elizabeth  went  to  Tilbury,  on  the 
Thames  below  London,  to  review  the  troops  collected  there  to 
defend  the  capital.  “I  know,”  said  she,  “  that  I  have  but  the 
feeble  body  of  a  woman,  but  I  have  the  heart  of  a  king,  and  of  a 
king  of  England  too.”  Unhappily  the  parsimonious  sovereign  had 
half  starved  her  brave  sailors,  and  large  numbers  of  them  came 
home  only  to  die.  None  the  less  Elizabeth  went  with  solemn  pomp 
to  St.  Paul’s  to  offer  thanks  for  the  great  victory,  which  was  com¬ 
memorated  by  a  medal  bearing  this  inscription  :  “  God  blew  with 
his  winds,  and  they  were  scattered.”  From  the  date  of  the  defeat 
of  the  Armada  England  gradually  rose,  under  the  leadership  of 
such  illustrious  commanders  as  Drake,  Blake,  and  Nelson,  until 
she  became  the  greatest  sea  power  in  the  world  (§§  511,  605). 


558-1603] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


223 


454.  Insurrection  in  Ireland  (1595).  —  A  few  years  later,  a 
terrible  rebellion  broke  out  in  Ireland.  From  its  partial  conquest 
in  the  time  of  Henry  II  (§  209),  the  condition  of  that  island  con¬ 
tinued  to  be  deplorable.  First,  the  chiefs  of  the  native  tribes 
fought  constantly  among  themselves  ;  next,  the  English  attempted 
to  force  the  Protestant  religion  upon  a  people  who  detested  it ; 
lastly,  the  greed  and  misgovernment  of  the  rulers  put  a  climax 
to  these  miseries.  The  country  became,  as  Raleigh  said,  “  a 
commonwealth  of  common  woe.” 

Under  Elizabeth  a  war  of  extermination  began,  so  merciless 
that  the  Queen  herself  declared  that  if  the  work  of  destruction 
went  on  much  longer,  “  she  should  have  nothing  left  but  ashes 
and  corpses  to  rule  over.”  Then,  but  not  till  then,  the  starving 
remnant  of  the  people  submitted,  and  England  gained  a  barren 
victory  which  has  ever  since  carried  with  it  its  own  curse. 

455.  The  First  Poor  Law  (1601). — In  Elizabeth’s  reign  the 
first  effective  English  poor  law  was  passed.  It  required  each 
parish  to  make  provision  for  such  paupers  as  were  unable  to  work, 
while  the  able-bodied  were  compelled  to  labor  for  their  own 
support.  This  measure  relieved  much  of  the  distress  which  had 
prevailed  during  the  two  previous  reigns,  and  forms  the  basis  of 
the  law  in  force  at  the  present  time  (§  646). 

456.  Elizabeth’s  Death  (1603). — The  death  of  the  great 
Queen  (1603)  was  as  sad  as  her  life  had  been  brilliant.  Her 
favorite,  Essex,  Shakespeare’s  intimate  friend,  had  been  beheaded 
for  an  attempted  rebellion  against  her  power.  From  that  time 
she  grew,  as  she  said,  “  heavy  hearted.”  Her  old  friends  and 
counsellors  were  dead,  her  people  no  longer  welcomed  her  with 
their  former  enthusiasm.  She  kept  a  sword  always  within  reach. 
Treason  had  grown  so  common  that  Hentzner,  a  German  traveller 
in  England,  said  that  he  counted  three  hundred  heads  of  persons, 
who  had  suffered  death  for  this  _  crime,  exposed  on  London 
Bridge.  Elizabeth  felt  that  her  sun  was  nearly  set ;  gradually 
her  strength  declined  ;  she  ceased  to  leave  her  palace,  and  sat 
muttering  to  herself  all  day  long,  “  Mortua,  sed  non  sepulta  !  ” 
(Dead,  but  not  buried). 


224  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1558-1603 

At  length  she  lay  propped  up  on  cushions  on  the  floor,1  “  tired,” 
as  she  said,  “  of  reigning  and  tired  of  life.”  In  that  sullen  mood 
she  departed  to  join  that  silent  majority  whose  realm  under  earth 
is  bounded  by  the  sides  of  the  grave.  “  Four  days  aftervvard,” 
says  a  writer  of  that  time,  “  she  was  forgotten.” 

One  may  see  her  tomb,  with  her  full-length,  recumbent  effigy, 
in  the  north  aisle  of  Henry  VII’s  Chapel  (Westminster  Abbey), 
and  in  the  opposite  aisle  the  tomb  and  effigy  of  her  old  rival  and 
enemy,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  (§  449).  The  sculptured  features  of 
both  look  placid.  “  After  life’s  fitful  fever  they  sleep  well.” 

457.  Summary.  — The  Elizabethan  period  was  in  every  respect 
remarkable.  It  was  great  in  its  men  of  thought,  and  equally  great 
in  its  men  of  action.  It  was  greatest,  however,  in  its  successful 
resistance  to  the  armed  hand  of  religious  oppression.  Protestant¬ 
ism  was  formally  and  finally  established  in  England  under  the 
National  Church. 

The  defeat  of  the  Armada  gave  renewed  courage  to  the  cause 
of  the  Reformation,  not  only  in  England,  but  in  every  Protestant 
country  in  Europe.  It  meant  that  a  movement  had  begun  which, 
though  it  might  be  temporarily  hindered,  would  at  last  secure  to 
all  -civilized  countries  the  right  of  private  judgment  and  of  liberty 
of  conscience. 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  TUDOR  PERIOD  (1485-1603) 

I.  GOVERNMENT.  —  II.  RELIGION.  -  III.  MILITARY  AFFAIRS.  - 

IV.  LITERATURE,  LEARNING,  AND  ART. - V.  GENERAL  INDUSTRY 

AND  COMMERCE. - VI.  MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND  CUSTOMS. 

GOVERNMENT 

458.  Absolutism  of  the  Crown  ;  Free  Trade;  the  Post-Office. —  Dur¬ 
ing  a  great  part  of  the  Tudor  period  the  power  of  the  Crown  was 
well-nigh  absolute.  Four  causes  contributed  to  this  :  1.  The  destruc¬ 
tion  of  a  very  large  part  of  the  feudal  nobility  by  the  Wars  of  the 


,  1  See  Delaroche’s  line  picture,  The  Death  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 


485-1603] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


225 


Roses.1  2.  The  removal  of  many  of  the  higher  clergy  from  the 
House  of  Lords.2  3.  The  creation  of  a  new  nobility  dependent  on 
the  king.  4.  The  desire  of  the  great  body  of  the  people  for  “  peace 
at  any  price.” 

Under  Henry  VII  and  Elizabeth  the  courts  of  Star-Chamber  and 
High  Commission  exercised  arbitrary  power,  and  often  inflicted  cruel 
punishments  for  offences  against  the  Government,  and  for  heresy  or 
the  denial  of  the  religious  supremacy  of  the  sovereign. 

Henry  VII  established  a  treaty  of  free  trade,  called  the  “Great 
Intercourse,”  between  England  and  the  Netherlands.  Under  Eliza¬ 
beth  the  first  postmaster-general  entered  upon  his  duties,  though  the 
post-office  was  not  fully  established  until  the  reign  of  her  successor. 

RELIGION 

459.  Establishment  of  the  Protestant  Church  of  England.  —  Henry 
VIII  suppressed  the  Roman  Catholic  monasteries,  seized  their  prop¬ 
erty,  and  ended  by  declaring  the  Church  of  England  independent  of 
the  Pope.  Thenceforth,  he  assumed  the  title  of  Head  of  the  National 
Church.  Under  Edward  VI  Protestantism  was  established  by  law. 
Mary  led  a  reaction  in  favor  of  Roman  Catholicism,  but  her  successor, 
Elizabeth,  reinstated  the  Protestant  form  of  worship.  Under  Eliza¬ 
beth  the  Puritans  demanded  that  the  National  Church  be  purified 
from  all  Catholic  forms  and  doctrines.  Severe  laws  were  passed 
under  Elizabeth  for  the  punishment  of  both  Catholics  and  Puritans, 
all  persons  being  required  to  conform  to  the  Church  of  England. 

MILITARY  AFFAIRS 

460.  Arms  and  Armor  ;  the  Navy.  —  Though  gunpowder  had  been 
in  use  for  two  centuries,  yet  full  suits  of  armor  were  still  worn  during 
a  great  part  of  the  period.  An  improved  match-lock  gun,  with  the 
pistol,  an  Italian  invention,  and  heavy  cannon  were  introduced.  Until 
the  death  of  Henry  VIII  foot-soldiers  continued  to  be  armed  with  the 
long-bow;  but  under  Edward  VI  that  weapon  was  superseded  by 

1  In  the  last  Parliament  before  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  (1454)  there  were  fifty-three 
temporal  peers;  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VII  (1485)  there  were  only 
twenty-nine. 

2  Out  of  a  total  of  barely  ninety  peers,  Henry  VIII,  by  the  suppression  of  the 
monasteries,  removed  upwards  of  thirty-six  abbots  and  priors.  He,  however,  added 
five  new  bishops,  which  made  the  House  of  Lords  number  about  fifty-nine. 


226  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1485-1603 


firearms.  The  principal  wars  of  the  period  were  with  Scotland, 
France,  and  Spain,  the  last  being  by  far  the  most  important,  and 
ending  with  the  destruction  of  the  Armada. 

Henry  VI 1 1  established  a  permanent  navy,  and  built  several  vessels 
of  upwards  of  one  thousand  tons  register.  The  largest  men-of-war 
under  Elizabeth  carried  forty  cannon  and  a  crew  of  several  hundred 
men. 


LITERATURE,  LEARNING,  AND  ART 

461.  Schools. — The  revival  of  learning  gave  a  great  impetus  to 
education.  The  money  which  had  once  been  given  to  monasteries  was 
now  spent  in  building  schools,  colleges,  and  hospitals.  Dean  Colet 
established  the  free  grammar  school  of  St.  Paul’s,  several  colleges 
were  endowed  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  Edward  VI  opened 
upwards  of  forty  charity  schools  in  different  parts  of  the  country, 
of  which  the  Blue-Coat  School,  London,  is  one  of  the  best  known. 
Improved  text-books  were  prepared  for  the  schools,  and  Lilye’s  “  Latin 
Grammar,”  first  published  in  1513  for  the  use  of  Dean  Colet’s  school, 
continued  a  standard  work  for  over  three  hundred  years. 

462.  Literature;  the  Theatre.  —  The  latter  part  of  the  period 
deserves  the  name  of  the  “  Golden  Age  of  English  Literature.” 
More,  Sydney,  Hooker,  Jewfell  were  the  leading  prose  writers  ;  while 
Spenser,  Marlowe,  Jonson,  and  Shakespeare  represented  the  poets. 

In  1574  a  public  theatre  was  erected  in  London,  in  which  Shake¬ 
speare  was  a  stockholder.  Not  very  long  after,  a  second  was  opened. 
At  both  these  (the  Globe  and  the  Blackfriars)  the  great  dramatist 
appeared  in  his  own  plays,  and  in  such  pieces  as  “King  John,” 
“  Richard  the  Third,”  and  the  Henrys,  he  taught  his  countrymen 
more  of  the  true  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  nation’s  history  than 
they  had  ever  learned  before.  His  historical  plays  are  chiefly  based 
on  Holinshed  and  Hall,  two  chroniclers  of  the  period. 

463.  Progress  of  Science ;  Superstitions.  —  The  discoveries  of 
Columbus,  Cabot,  Magellan,  and  other  navigators,  had  proved  the 
earth  to  be  a  globe.  Copernicus,  a  Prussian  astronomer,  now  demon¬ 
strated  the  fact  that  it  both  turns  on  its  axis  and  revolves  around  the 
sun,  but  the  discovery  was  not  accepted  until  many  years  later. 

On  the  other  hand,  astrology,  witchcraft,  and  the  transmutation  of 
copper  and  lead  into  gold  were  generally  believed  in.  In  preaching 
before  Queen  Elizabeth,  Bishop  Jewell  urged  that  stringent  measures 


1485-1603] 


POLITICAL  REACTION 


227 


be  taken  with  witches  and  sorcerers,  saying  that  through  their 
demoniacal  acts  “your  Grace’s  subjects  pine  away  even  unto  death, 
their  color  fadeth,  their  flesh  rotteth.”  Lord  Bacon  and  other  eminent 
men  held  the  same  belief,  and  many  persons  eventually  suffered  death 
for  the  practice  of  witchcraft. 

464.  Architecture.  —  The  Gothic,  or  Pointed,  style  of  architecture 
reached  its  final  stage  (the  Perpendicular)  in  the  early  part  of  this 
period.  The  first  examples  of  it  have  already  been  mentioned  at  the 
close  of  the  preceding  period  (see  §  376).  After  the  close  of 
Henry  VII’s  reign  no  attempts  were  made  to  build  any  grand  church 
edifices  until  St.  Paul’s  Cathedral  was  rebuilt  by  Wren,  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  in  the  Italian,  or  classical,  style. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  Tudor  period  many  stately  country-houses1 
and  grand  city  mansions  were  built,  ornamented  with  carved  wood¬ 
work  and  bay-windows.  Castles  were  no  longer  constructed,  and,  as 
the  country  was  at  peace,  many  of  those  which  had  been  built  were 
abandoned,  though  a  few  castellated  mansions  like  Thornbury, 
Gloucestershire,  were  built  in  Henry  VI II’s  time.  The  streets  of 
London  still  continued  to  be  very  narrow,  and  the  tall  houses,  with 
projecting  stories,  were  so  near  together  at  the  top  that  neighbors 
living  on  opposite  sides  of  the  street  might  almost  shake  hands  from 
the  upper  windows. 

GENERAL  INDUSTRY  AND  COMMERCE 

465.  Foreign  Trade.  —  The  geographical  discoveries  of  this  period 
gave  a  great  impulse  to  foreign  trade  with  Africa,  Brazil,  and  North 
America.  The  wool  trade  continued  to  increase,  and  also  commerce 
with  the  East  Indies.  In  1600  the  East  India  Company  was  estab¬ 
lished,  thus  laying  the  foundation  of  England’s  Indian  empire,  and 
ships  now  brought  cargoes  direct  to  England  by  way  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope. 

Sir  Francis  Drake  did  a  flourishing  business  in  plundering  Spanish 
settlements  in  America  and  Spanish  treasure-ships,  and  Sir  John 
Hawkins  became  wealthy  through  the  slave  '  trade,  —  kidnapping 
negroes  on  the  coast  of  Guinea,  and  selling  them  to  the  Spanish  West 
India  colonies.  The  domestic  trade  of  England  was  still  carried  on 

1  Such  as  Hatfield  House,  Knowle  and  Hardwick  Hall ;  and,  in  London,  mansions 
similar  to  Crosby  Hall. 


228  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1485-1603 


largely  .by  great  annual  fairs.  Trade,  however,  was  much  deranged 
by  the  quantities  of  debased  money  issued  under  Henry  VIII  and 
Edward  VI. 

Elizabeth  reformed  the  currency,  and  ordered  the  mint  to  send  out 
coin  which  no  longer  had  a  lie  stamped  on  its  face,  thereby  setting 
an  example  to  all  future  governments,  whether  monarchical  or 
republican. 

MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND  CUSTOMS 

466.  Life  in  the  Country  and  the  City.  —  In  the  cities  this  was  an 
age  of  luxury  ;  but  on  the  farms  the  laborer  was  glad  to  get  a  bundle 
of  straw  for  a  bed,  and  a  wooden  trencher  to  eat  from.  Vegetables 
were  scarcely  known,  and  fresh  meat  was  eaten  only  by  the  well-to-do. 
The  cottages  were  built  of  sticks  and  mud,  without  chimneys,  and 
were  nearly  as  bare  of  furniture  as  the  wigwam  of  an  American 
Indian. 

The  rich  kept  several  mansions  and  country-houses,  but  paid  little 
attention  to  cleanliness  ;  and  when  the  filth  and  vermin  in  one  became 
unendurable,  they  left  it  “  to  sweeten,”  as  they  said,  and  went  to 
another  of  their  estates.  The  dress  of  the  nobles  continued  to  be  of 
the  most  costly  materials  and  the  gayest  colors. 

At  table  a  great  variety  of  dishea  were  served  on  silver  plate,  but 
fingers  were  still  used  in  place  of  forks.  Tea  and  coffee  were 
unknown,  and  beer  was  the  usual  drink  at  breakfast  and  supper. 

Carriages  were  not  in  use,  except  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  all  jour¬ 
neys  were  performed  on  horseback.  Merchandise  was  also  generally 
transported  on  pack-horses,  the  roads  rarely  being  good  enough  for 
the  passage  of  wagons.  The  principal  amusements  were  the  theatre, 
dancing,  masquerading,  bull  and  bear  baiting  (worrying  a  bull  or  bear 
with  dogs),  cock-fighting,  and  gambling. 


603-1625]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OP'  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  229 


L 


SECTION  IX 


“  It  is  the  nature  of  the  devil  of  tyranny  to  tear  and  rend  the  body  which 
he  leaves.”  —  Macaulay. 


BEGINNING  WITH  THE  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS, 
AND  ENDING  WITH  THE  DIVINE  RIGHT  OE 
THE  PEOPLE 

KING  or  PARLIAMENT? 


House  of  Stuart  (1603-1649,  1660-1714) 


James  I,  1603-1625. 

Charles  I,  1625-1649. 

“  The  Commonwealth  and 


Charles  II,  1660-1685. 

James  II,  16S5-16S8. 

William  &  Mary,1  16S9-1702. 
Anne,  1702-1714. 


Protectorate,”  1649-1660. 


467.  Accession  of  James  I.  —  Elizabeth  was  the  last  of  the 
Tudor  family.  By  birth,  James  Stuart,  only  son  of  Mary  Stuart, 
Queen  of  Scots,  and  great-grandson  of  Margaret,  sister  of  Henry 
VIII,  was  the  nearest  heir  to  the  crown.2  He  was  already  King 
of  Scotland  under  the  title  of  James  VI.  He  now,  by  act  of 
Parliament,  became  James  I  of  England.8  By  his  accession  the 
two  countries  were  united  under  one  sovereign,  but  each  retained 
its  own  Parliament,  its  own  National  Church,  and  its  own  laws.4 

1  Orange-Stuart.  2  See  table,  §  420. 

3  See  Taswell-Langmead’s  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

4  On  his  coins  and  in  his  proclamations,  James  styled  himself  King  of  Great 
Britain,  France,  and  Ireland.  But  the  term  Great  Britain  did  not  properly  come 
into  use  until  somewhat  more  than  a  hundred  years  later,  when,  by  an  act  of  Parlia¬ 
ment  under  Anne,  Scotland  and  England  were  legally  united. 

The  English  Parliament  refused  to  grant  free  trade  to  Scotland  and  denied  to 
the  people  of  that  country,  even  if  born  after  James  I  came  to  the  English  throne 
(or  “  Post  Nati,  ”  as  they  were  called),  the  rights  and  privileges  possessed  by  natives 
of  England. 


230  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1603-1625 


The  new  monarch  found  himself  ruler  over  three  kingdoms,  each 
professing  a  different  religion.  Puritanism  prevailed  in  Scotland, 
Catholicism  in  Ireland,  Anglicanism  or  Episcopacy  in  England. 

468.  The  King’s  Appearance  and  Character.  —  James  was 
unfortunate  in  his  birth.  Neither  his  father,  Lord  Darnley,  nor 
his  mother  had  high  qualities  of  character.  The  murder  of  Mary’s 
Italian  secretary  in  her  own  palace,  and  almost  in  her  own  pres¬ 
ence  (§  447),  gave  the  Queen  a  shock  which  left  a  fatal  inheri¬ 
tance  of  cowardice  to  her  son.  Throughout  his  life  he  could  not 
endure  the  sight  of  a  drawn  sword.  His  personal  appearance 
was  by  no  means  impressive.  He  had  a  feeble,  rickety  body,  he 
could  not  walk  straight,  his  tongue  was  too  large  for  his  mouth, 
and  he  had  goggle  eyes.  Through  fear  of  assassination  he  habit¬ 
ually  wore  thickly  padded  and  quilted  clothes,  usually  green  in 
color. 

He  was  a  man  of  considerable  shrewdness,  but  of  small  mind, 
and  of  unbounded  conceit.  His  Scotch  tutor  had  crammed  him 
with  much  ill-digested  learning,  so  that  he  gave  the  impression  of 
a  man  educated  beyond  his  intellect. 

He  wrote  on  witchcraft,  kingcraft,  and  theology,  besides  numer¬ 
ous  commonplace  verses.  He  also  wrote  a  sweeping  denuncia¬ 
tion  of  the  new  plant  called  tobacco,  which  Raleigh  (§  444)  had 
brought  from  America,  whose  smoke  now  began  to  perfume,  or, 
according  to  James,  to  poison,  the  air  of  England. 

He  had  all  the  superstitions  of  the  age,  and  one  of  his  earliest 
acts  was  the  passage  of  a  statute  punishing  witchcraft  with  death. 
Under  that  law  many  a  wretched  woman  perished  on  the  scaffold, 
whose  only  crime  was  that  she  was  old,  ugly,  and  friendless. 

469.  The  Great  Puritan  Petition  (1603).  —  During  the  latter 
part  of  Elizabeth’s  reign,  the  Puritans  in  England  had  increased 
so  rapidly  that  Archbishop  Whitgift  told  James  he  was  amazed  to 
find  how  “  the  vipers  ”  had  multiplied.  The  Puritans  felt  that 
the  Reformation  had  not  been  sufficiently  thorough  (§  430). 

They  complained  that  many  of  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of 
the  Church  of  England  were  by  no  means  in  harmony  with  the 
Scriptures.  Many  of  them  wished  also  to  change  the  form  of 


1603-1625]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  23 1 


church  government,  and  instead  of  having  bishops  appointed 
by  the  King,  to  adopt  the  more  democratic  method  of  having 
presbyters  or  elders  chosen  by  the  congregation. 

While  James  was  on  the  way  from  Scotland  to  London  to 
receive  the  crown,  the  Puritans  presented  the  “  Millenary  Peti¬ 
tion  ”  to  him.  It  was  so  called  because  it  purported  to  have  a 
thousand  signers.  The  ministers  presenting  it  asked  that  they 
might  be  permitted  to  preach  without  wearing  the  white  gown 
called  a  surplice,  to  baptize  without  making  the  sign  of  the  cross 
on  the  child’s  forehead,  and  to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony 
without  using  the  ring.  Bishop  Hooker  and  Lord  Bacon  had 
pleaded  for  a  certain  degree  of  toleration  for  the  Puritans.  They 
urged  that  “  he  that  is  not  against  us  is  for  us.”  But  the  King 
had  no  patience  with  such  a  plea. 

470.  Hampton  Court  Conference  (1604).  — -The  King  convened 
a  conference  at  Hampton  Court,  near  London,  to  consider  the 
petition,  or  rather  to  make  a  pedantic  display  of  his  own  learning. 
The  probability  that  he  would  grant  the  petitioners’  request  was 
small.  James  had  come  to  England  disgusted  with  the  violence 
of  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  or  Puritans,  especially  since  Andrew 
Melville,  one  of  their  leading  ministers  in  Edinburgh,  had  seized 
his  sleeve  at  a  public  meeting  and  addressed  him  with  a  somewhat 
brutal  excess  of  truth,  as  “God’s  silly  vassal.”  1 

But  the  new  sovereign  had  a  still  deeper  reason  for  his  antip¬ 
athy  to  the  Puritans.  He  saw  that  their  doctrine  of  equality  in 
the  Church  naturally  led  to  that  of  equality  in  the  State.  If  they 
objected  to  Episcopal  government  in  the  one,  might  they  not 
presently  object  to  royal  government  in  the  other?  Hence,  to  all 
their  arguments,  he  answered  with  his  favorite  maxim,  “No  bishop, 
no  king,”  meaning  that  the  two  must  stand  or  fall  together. 

At  the  Hampton  Court  Conference  no  real  freedom  of  dis¬ 
cussion  was  allowed.  The  only  good  result  was  that  the  King 
ordered  a  new  and  revised  translation  of  the  Bible  to  be  made. 

1  Gardiner  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  (English)  Biography,  under  “  James  I,” 
thinks  that  by  “silly”  Melville  simply  meant  “weak.”  But  at  any  rate  the  Puritan 
minister’s  blunt  speech  was  far  from  complimentary. 


232  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1603-1625 

It  was  published  a  few  years  later  (1611).  The  work  was  done 
so  well  that  it  still  remains  the  version  used  in  nearly  every 
Protestant  church  and  Protestant  home  where  the  English 
language  is  spoken. 

James,  however,  regarded  the  conference  as  a  success.  He 
had  refuted  the  Puritans,  as  he  believed,  with  much  Latin  and 
some  Greek.  He  ended  by  declaiming  against  them  with  such 
unction  that  one  enthusiastic  bishop  declared  that  his  majesty 
must  be  specially  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost  ! 

He  closed  the  meeting  by  imprisoning  the  ten  persons  who 
had  presented  the  petition,  on  the  ground  that  it  tended  to  sedi¬ 
tion  and  rebellion.  Henceforth,  the  King’s  attitude  toward  the 
Puritans  was  unmistakable.  “  I  will  make  them  conform,”  said 
he,  “  or  I- will  harry  them  out  of  the  land  ”  (§§  474,  567). 

Accordingly,  a  law  was  enacted  which  required  every  curate  to 
accept  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (§  435)  and  the  Prayer-Book 
(§  414)  without  reservation.  This  act  drove  several  hundred 
clergymen  from  the  Established  Church. 

471.  The  Divine  Right  of  Kings;  the  Protest  of  the  Com¬ 
mons;  “Favorites.” — As  if  with  the  desire  of  further  alien¬ 
ating  his  people,  James  now  constantly  proclaimed  the  doctrine 
of  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings.  This  theory,  which  was  unknown 
to  the  English  constitution,  declared  that  the  King  derived  his 
power  and  right  to  rule  directly  from  God,  and  in  no  way  from 
the  people.1  “  It  is  atheism  and  blasphemy,”  he  said,  “  to 
dispute  what  God  can  do,  ...  so  it  is  presumption  and  high 
contempt  in  a  subject  to  dispute  what  a  king  can  do.” 

All  this  would  have  been  amusing  had  it  not  been  dangerous. 
James  forgot  that  he  owed  his  throne  to  that  act  of  Parliament 
which  accepted  him  as  Elizabeth’s  successor  (§  467).  In  his 
exalted  position  as  head  of  the  nation,  he  boasted  of  his  power 
much  like  the  dwarf  in  the  story,  who,  perched  on  the  giant’s 
shoulders,  cries  out,  “  See  how  big  I  am  !  ” 

1  James’  favorite  saying  was,  “  A  Deo  rex,  a  rege  lex  ”  (God  makes  the  king, 
the  king  makes  the  law).  He  boasted  that  kings  might,  as  he  declared,  “  make 
what  liked  them  law  and  gospel.” 


1603-1625]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  233 


Acting  on  this  assumption,  James  levied  customs  duties  on 
goods  without  asking  the  consent  of  Parliament ;  violated  the 
privileges  of  the  House  of  Commons ;  rejected  members  who 
had  been  legally  elected ;  and  imprisoned  those  who  dared  to 
criticise  his  course.  The  contest  was  kept  up  with  bitterness 
during  the  whole  reign. 

Toward  its  close  James  truckled  meanly  to  the  power  of  Spain, 
hoping  thereby  to  marry  his  son  Charles  to  a  Spanish  princess. 
Later,  he  made  a  feeble  and  futile  effort  to  help  the  Protestant 
party  in  the  great  Thirty  Years’  War  (1618-1648),  which  had 
begun  between  the  Catholics  and  Protestants  in  Germany. 
The  House  of  Commons  implored  the  King  not  to  humiliate 
himself  and  the  nation  at  the  feet  of  Spain.  The  King  replied 
by  warning  the  House  not  to  meddle  with  matters  which  did 
not  concern  them,  and  denied  their  right  to  freedom  of  speech. 
The  Commons  solemnly  protested,  and  James  seized  their  offi¬ 
cial  journal,  and  with  his  own  hands  tore  out  the  record  of  the 
protest  (1621). 

Yet,  notwithstanding  his  arbitrary  character,  James  was  easily 
managed  by  those  who  would  flatter  his  vanity.  For  this  reason 
he  was  always  under  the  control  of  worthless  favorites  like  Carr 
(Earl  of  Somerset)  or  Villiers  (Duke  of  Buckingham).  These 
men  were  the  secret  power  behind  the  throne,  and  they  often 
dictated  the  policy  of  the  Crown. 

472.  The  Gunpowder  Plot  (1605). — This  arbitrary  spirit  so 
angered  the  Commons,  many  of  whom  were  Puritans  (§  430), 
that  they,  believing  that  the  King  secretly  favored  the  Roman 
Catholics,  increased  the  stringency  of  the  laws  against  persons  of 
that  religion.  To  vindicate  himself  from  this  suspicion,  the  King 
proceeded  to  execute  the  new  statutes  with  rigor.  As  a  rule,  the 
Catholics  were  loyal  subjects.  When  Spain  threatened  to  invade 
the  country,  they  fought  as  valiantly  in  its  defence  as  the  Prot¬ 
estants  themselves  (§  452).  Many  of  them  were  now  ruined  by 
enormous  fines,  while  the  priests  were  driven  from  the  realm. 

One  of  the  sufferers  by  these  unjust  measures  was  Robert 
Catesby,  a  Catholic  gentleman  of  good  position.  He,  with  the 


234  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1603-1625 


aid  of  a  Yorkshire  man,  named  Guy  Fawkes,  and  about  a  dozen 
more,  formed  a  plot  to  blow  up  the  Parliament  House,  on  the 
day  the  King  was  to  open  the  session  (Nov.  5,  1605).  Their 
intention,  after  they  had  thus  summarily  disposed  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment,  was  to  induce  the  Catholics  to  rise  and  proclaim  a 
new  sovereign.  The  plot  was  discovered,  the  conspirators  exe¬ 
cuted,  and  the  Catholics  were  treated  with  greater  severity  than 
ever  (§  567). 

473.  American  Colonies,  Virginia,  1607. — A  London  joint 
stock  company  of  merchants  and  adventurers,  or  speculators, 
established  the  first  permanent  English  colony  in  America,  on 
the  coast  of  Virginia  in  1607,  at  a  place  which  they  called 
Jamestown,  in  honor  of  the  King.1  The  colony  was  wholly  under 
the  control  of  the  Crown. 

The  religion  was  to  be  that  of  the  Church  of  England.  Most 
of  those  who  went  out  were  “  gentlemen,”  that  is,  persons  not 
brought  up  to  manual  labor ;  but  for  the  energy  and  determined 
courage  of  Capt.  John  Smith,  who  was  the  real  soul  of  the  enter¬ 
prise,  it  would  have  proved,  like  Raleigh’s  undertaking  (§  444), 
a  miserable  failure.  In  time,  however,  the  new  colony  gained 
strength. 

Negro  slavery,  which  in  those  days  touched  no  man’s  con¬ 
science,  was  introduced,  and  by  its  means  great  quantities  of 
tobacco  were  raised  for  export.  The  settlement  grew  in  popu¬ 
lation  and  wealth,  and  at  the  end  of  twelve  years  (1619)  it  had 
secured  the  privilege  of  making  its  own  local  laws,  thus  becoming 
practically  a  self-governing  community. 

474.  The  Pilgrims;  the  New  Power. — The  year  after  this 
great  enterprise  was  undertaken,  another  band  of  emigrants 
went  out  from  England,  not  west,  but  east ;  not  to  seek  pros¬ 
perity,  but  greater  religious  freedom.  James’  declaration  that 
he  would  make  all  men  conform  to  the  Established  Church,  or 
drive  them  out  of  the  land,  was  having  its  due  effect  (§  470). 

Those  who  continued  to  refuse  to  conform  were  fined,  cast 
into  noisome  prisons,  beaten,  and  often  half  starved,  so  that  the 
1  See  Map  No.  13,  facing  page  218. 


^ Vi afl1 


THE  HOMES  OF  THE  PILGRIf. 


1603-1625]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  235 

old  and  feeble  soon  died.  Strange  to  say,  this  kind  of  treatment 
did  not  win  over  the  Puritans  to  the  side  of  the  bishops  and  the 
King.  On  the  contrary,  it  set  many  of  them  to  thinking  more 
seriously  than  ever  of  the  true  relations  of  the  Government  to 
religion. 

The  result  was  that  not  a  few  came  to  the  conclusion  that  each 
body  of  Christians  had  the  right  to  form  a  religious  society  of  its 
own  wholly  independent  of  the  State.  Those  of  the  Puritans 
who  thus  thought  got  the  name  of  Independents,  or  Separatists, 
because  they  were  determined  to  separate  from  the  National 
Church  and  conduct  their  worship  and  govern  their  religious 
societies  as  they  deemed  best. 

In  the  little  village  of  Scrooby,  Nottinghamshire,  Postmaster 
William  Brewster,  William  Bradford,  John  Carver,  and  some 
others,  mostly  farmers  and  poor  men  of  the  neighborhood,  had 
organized  such  an  independent  church  with  John  Robinson  for 
its  minister.  After  a  time  they  became  convinced  that  so  long 
as  they  remained  in  England  they  could  never  be  safe  from  per¬ 
secution.  They  therefore  resolved  to  leave  their  native  country, 
and  as  they  could  not  get  a  royal  license  to  go  to  America,  to 
emigrate  to  Holland,  where  all  men  were,  at  that  time,  free  to 
establish  societies  for  the  worship  of  God  in  their  own  manner. 
With  much  difficulty  and  danger  they  managed  to  escape  there. 

After  remaining  in  Holland  upwards  of  twelve  years,  a  part  of 
them  succeeded  in  obtaining  from  King  James  the  privilege  of 
emigrating  to  America.1  A  London  trading  company,  which  w'as 
sending  out  an  expedition  for  fish  and  furs,  agreed  to  furnish  the 
Pilgrims  passage  by  the  Mayflower ,  though  on  terms  so  hard 
that  the  poor  exiles  said  the  “conditions  were  fitter  for  thieves 
and  bondslaves  than  honest  men.” 

These  Pilgrims,  or  wanderers,  set  forth  (1620)  for  that  new 
world  beyond  the  sea,  which  they  hoped  would  redress  the 
wrongs  of  the  old.  Landing  at  Plymouth,  in  Massachusetts,  they 

1  See  Map  No.  14,  facing  page  234  (Nottinghamshire,  an  inland  county  in  the 
eastern  part  of  England);  and  see  “  Why  did  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  come  to  New 
England?"  by  Edwin  D.  Mead,  in  the  New  Englander,  1882. 


236  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1603-1625 

established  a  colony  on  the  basis  of  “  equal  laws  for  the  general 
good.”  Ten  years  later,  John  Winthrop,  a  Puritan  gentleman  of 
wealth  from  Groton,  Suffolk,1  followed  with  a  small  company  and 
settled  Salem  and  Boston.  During  the  next  decade  no  less  than 
twenty  thousand  Englishmen  found  a  home  in  America.  But  to 
the  little  band  that  embarked  under  Bradford  and  Brewster  in  the 
Mayflower,  the  scene  of  whose  landing  at  Plymouth  is  painted  on 
the  walls  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  belongs  the  credit  of  the 
great  undertaking. 

Of  that  enterprise  one  of  their  brethren  in  England  wrote  in 
the  time  of  their  severest  distress,  with  prophetic  foresight,  “  Let 
it  not  be  grievous  to  you  that  you  have  been  instruments  to  break 
the  ice  for  others ;  the  honor  shall  be  yours  to  the  world’s  end.” 
From  this  time  forward  the  American  coast  south  of  the  St.  Law¬ 
rence  was  settled  mainly  by  English  emigrants,  and  in  the  course 
of  a  little  more  than  a  century  (1620-1733),  the  total  number  of 
colonies  had  reached  thirteen.  Thus  the  nation  of  Great  Britain 
was  beginning  to  expand  into  that  greater  Britain  which  it  had 
discovered  and  planted  beyond  the  sea. 

Meanwhile  a  new  power  had  arisen  in  England.  It  was 
mightier  even  than  that  of  kings,  because  greater  for  both  good 
and  evil.  This  power  came  up  obscurely.  It  appeared  in  the 
spring  of  1622,  under  the  name  of  the  Weekly  News,  —  the  first 
regular  newspaper. 

475.  The  Colonization  of  Ireland  (1611).  — While  the  coloniza¬ 
tion  of  America  was  going  on,  James  was  himself  planning  a  very 
different  kind  of  colony  in  the  northeast  of  Ireland.  The  greater 
part  of  the  province  of  Ulster,  which  had  been  the  scene  of  the 
rebellion  under  Elizabeth  (§454),  had  been  seized  by  the  Crown. 
The  King  now  granted  these  lands  to  settlers  from  Scotland  and 
England.  The  city  of  London  founded  a  colony  which  they 
called  Londonderry,  and  by  this  means  Protestantism  was  firmly 
and  finally  established  in  the  north  of  the  island. 

476.  The  “  Addled  Parliament  ”  ;  the  New  Stand  taken  by  the 
House  of  Commons  (1610-1614). — The  House  of  Commons  at 

i‘See  Map  No.  14,  facing  page  234.  Suffolk  is  in  the  southeast  of  England. 


! 


1603-1625]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  23 7 


this  period  began  to  slowly  get  back,  with  interest,  the  power  it 
had  lost  under  the  Tudors  (§  402).  James  suffered  from  a  chronic 
lack  of  money.  He  was  obliged  to  apply  to  Parliament  to  supply 
his  wants  (1614),  but  that  body  was  determined  to  grant  nothing 
without  reforms.  They  laid  it  down  as  a  principle,  to  which  they 
firmly  adhered,  that  the  King  should  not  have  the  nation’s  coin 
unless  he  would  promise  to  right  the  nation’s  wrongs. 

After  several  weeks  of  angry  discussion  the  King  dissolved  what 
was  nicknamed  the  “  Addled  Parliament,”  because  its  enemies 
accused  it  of  having  accomplished  nothing.  In  reality  it  had 
accomplished  much,  for  though  it  had  not  passed  a  single  bill, 
it  had  shown  by  its  determined  attitude  the  growing  strength 
of  the  people.  For  the  next  seven  years  James  ruled  without 
summoning  a  Parliament.  In  order  to  obtain  means  to  support 
his  army  in  Ireland,  the  King  created  a  new  title  of  rank,  that 
of  baronet,1  which  he  granted  to  any  one  who  would  pay  liber¬ 
ally  for  it.  As  a  last  resort  to  get  funds  he  compelled  all  persons 
having  an  income  of  forty 2  pounds  or  more  a  year,  derived  from 
landed  property,  to  accept  knighthood  (thus  incurring  feudal 
obligations  and  payments  [§  200])  or  purchase  exemption  by 
a  heavy  fine. 

477.  Impeachment  of  Lord  Bacon  (1621). — When  James  did 
finally  summon  a  Parliament  (1621),  it  met  in  a  stern  mood. 
The  House  of  Commons  impeached  Lord  Bacon  for  having  taken 
bribes  in  lawsuits  tried  before  him  as  judge.  The  House  of  Lords 
convicted  him.  He  confessed  the  crime,  but  pleaded  extenuating 
circumstances,  adding,  “  I  beseech  your  lordships  to  be  merciful 
unto  a  broken  reed  ”  ;  but  Bacon  had  been  in  every  respect  a 

1  Baronet :  this  title  does  not  confer  the  right  to  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
A  baronet  is  designated  as  “Sir,”  eg .,  Sir  John  Franklin. 

2  This  exaction  was  ridiculed  by  the  wits  of  the  time  in  these  lines :  — 

“  He  that  hath  forty  pounds  per  annum 
Shall  be  promoted  from  the  plough ; 

His  wife  shall  take  the  wall  of  her  grannum  *  — 

Honor  ’s  sold  so  dog-cheap  now.” 

The  distraint  of  knighthood,  as  it  was  called,  began  at  least  as  far  back  as  Edward  I, 
1278. 

*Take  precedence  of  her  grandmother. 


238  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1603-1625 


servile  tool  of  James,  and  no  mercy  was  granted.  Parliament 
imposed  a  fine  of  ^40,000,  with  imprisonment.  Had  the  sen¬ 
tence  been  fully  executed,  it  would  have  caused  his  utter  ruin. 
The  King,  however,  interposed,  and  his  favorite  escaped  with  a 
few  days’  confinement  in  the  Tower. 

478.  Execution  of  Raleigh  (1618).  —  Meanwhile  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  (§  444)  had  been  executed  on  a  charge  of  treason.  He 
had  been  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower  for  many  years  (1603-1616), 
accused  of  having  plotted  against  the  King.1  Influenced  by  greed 
for  gain,  James  released  him  to  go  on  an  expedition  in  search 
of  gold  to  replenish  the  royal  coffers.  Raleigh,  contrary  to 
the  King’s  orders,  came  into  collision  with  the  Spaniards  on 
the  coast  of  South  America.2  He  failed  in  his  enterprise,  and 
brought  back  nothing.  Raleigh  was  especially  hated  by  Spain, 
not  only  on  account  of  the  part  he  had  taken  in  the  defeat  of 
the  Armada  (§  452),  but  also  for  his  subsequent  attacks  on 
Spanish  treasure-ships  and  property. 

The  King  of  that  country  now  demanded  vengeance,  and  James, 
in  order  to  get  a  pretext  for  his  execution,  revived  the  sentence 
which  had  been  passed  on  Raleigh  fifteen  years  before.  He  doubt¬ 
less  hoped  that,  by  sacrificing  Raleigh,  he  might  secure  the  hand 
of  the  daughter  of  the  King  of  Spain  for  his  son,  Prince  Charles. 
Raleigh  died  as  Sir  Thomas  More  did  (§  403),  his  last  words  a  jest 
at  death.  His  deeper  feelings  found  expression  in  the  lines  which 
he  wrote  on  the  fly-leaf  of  his  Bible  the  night  before  his  judicial 
murder  :  — 

“  Even  such  is  Time,  that  takes  in  trust 
Our  youth,  our  joys,  our  all  we  have, 

And  pays  us  but  with  age  and  dust ; 

Who  in  the  dark  and  silent  grave, 


1  At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  two  plots  were  discovered :  one,  called  the  “  Main 
Plot,”  aimed  to  change  the  government  and  perhaps  to  place  Arabella  Stuart,  cousin 
of  James,  on  the  throne.  The  object  of  the  second  conspiracy,  called  the  “  Bye  Plot," 
was  to  obtain  religious  toleration.  Raleigh  was  accused  of  having  been  implicated 
in  the  Main  Plot. 

2  It  is  said  that  James  had  treacherously  informed  the  Spanish  ambassador  of 
Ralgigh’s  voyage,  so  that  the  collision  was  inevitable. 


1603-1625]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  239 


When  we  have  wandered  all  our  ways, 

Shuts  up  the  story  of  our  days  ; 

But  from  this  earth,  this  grave,  this  dust, 

My  God  shall  raise  me  up,  I  trust.” 

479.  Death  of  James.  —  As  for  James,  when  he  died  a  few 
years  later,  a  victim  of  confirmed  drunkenness  and  gluttony,  his 
fittest  epitaph  would  have  been  what  an  eminent  French  statesman 
of  that  time  called  him,  “  the  wisest  fool  in  Christendom.”  1 

480.  Summary.  —  Three  chief  events  demand  our  attention 
in  this  reign.  First,  the  increased  power  and  determined  attitude 
of  the  House  of  Commons.  Secondly,  the  growth  of  the  Puritan 
and  Independent  parties  in  religion.  Thirdly,  the  establishment 
of  permanent,  self-governing  colonies  in  Virginia  and  New  Eng¬ 
land,  destined  in  time  to  unite  with  others  and  become  a  new  and 
independent  nation,  —  the  American  Republic. 

CHARLES  I — 1625-1649 

481.  Accession  of  Charles;  Result  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Divine  Right  of  Kings. — -The  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Right  6 f 
Kings,  which  had  been  so  zealously  put  forth  by  James  (§  471), 
bore  its  full  and  fatal  fruit  in  the  career  of  his  son.  Unlike  his 
father,  Charles  was  by  nature  a  gentleman.  In  his  private  and 
personal  relations  he  was  conscientious  and  irreproachable  ;  in 
public  matters  he  was  exactly  the  reverse. 

This  singular  contrast  —  this  double  character,  as  it  were  — 
arose  from  the  fact  that,  as  a  man,  Charles  felt  himself  bound  by 
truth  and  honor,  but,  as  a  sovereign,  he  considered  himself  supe¬ 
rior  to  such  obligations.  In  all  his  dealings  with  the  nation  he 
seems  to  have  acted  on  the  principle  that  the  people  had  no 
rights  which  kings  were  bound  to  respect. 

482.  The  King’s  Two  Mistakes  at  the  Outset. — Charles  I 
began  his  reign  with  two  mistakes.  First,  he  insisted  on  retain¬ 
ing  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  his  father’s  favorite  (§  471),  as  his 
chief  adviser,  though  the  duke  was,  for  good  reasons,  generally 


1  The  Due  de  Sully. 


240  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1625-1649 


distrusted  and  disliked.  Next,  shortly  after  his  accession,  Charles 
married  Henrietta  Maria,  a  French  Catholic  princess.  The  major¬ 
ity  of  the  English  people  hated  her  religion,  and  her  extravagant 
habits  soon  got  the  King  into  trouble. 

To  meet  her  incessant  demands  for  money,  and  to  carry  on  a 
petty  war  with  Spain,  and  later  with  France,  he  was  obliged  to 
ask  Parliament  for  funds.  Parliament  declined  to  grant  him  the 
supply  he  demanded  unless  he  would  redress  certain  grievances 
of  long  standing.  Charles  refused  and  dissolved  that  body. 

483.  The  Second  Parliament  (1626)  ;  the  King  extorts  Loans. 
—  Necessity,  however,  compelled  the  King  to  call  a  new  Parlia¬ 
ment.  When  it  met,  the  Commons,  under  the  lead  of  Sir  John 
Eliot  and  other  eminent  men,  proceeded  to  draw  up  articles  of 
impeachment,  accusing  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  of  mismanage¬ 
ment  (§  482).  To  save  his  favorite  from  being  brought  to  trial, 
the  King  dissolved  Parliament  (1626),  and  as  no  supply  had  been 
voted,  Charles  now  levied  illegal  taxes  and  extorted  loans. 

Sir  John  Eliot,  Sir  Edmund  Hampden, #  cousin  of  the  famous 
John  Hampden,  and  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth  refused  (1627)  to 
lend  his  majesty  the  sum  asked  for.  For  this  refusal  they  were 
thrown  into  prison.  This  led  to  increased  agitation  and  discon¬ 
tent.  At  length  the  King  found  himself  again  forced  to  summon 
Parliament ;  to  this  Parliament,  Eliot,  Wentworth,  and  others  who 
sympathized  with  them,  were  elected. 

484.  The  Petition  of  Right,  1628.  —  Shortly  after  assembling, 
the  House  of  Commons,  led  by  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth  and  John 
Pym,  drew  up  the  Petition  of  Right,  which  passed  the  Lords  and 
was  presented  to  the  King  for  his  signature.  The  petition  was  a 
law  reaffirming  some  of  the  chief  provisions  of  the  Great  Charter 
(§251).  It  stipulated  in  particular,  that  no  taxes  whatever 
should  be  levied  without  the  consent  of  Parliament,  and  that  no 
one  should  be  unlawfully  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  pay  such 
taxes.  In  the  petition  there  was  not  an  angry  word,  but  as  a 
member  of  the  Commons  declared,  “  We  say  no  more  than  what 
a  worm  trodden  upon  would  say  if  he  could  speak  :  I  pray  thee 
tread  on  me  no  more.” 


1625-1649]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  241 


485.  Charles  signs  the  Petition  of  Right,  1628 ;  he  revives 
Monopolies. — Charles  refused  to  sign  the  petition;  but  finding 
that  money  could  be  got  on  no  other  terms,  he  at  length  gave 
his  signature,  1628.1  But  for  Charles  to  pledge  his  royal  word 
to  the  nation  meant  its  direct  and  open  violation.  The  King 
now  revived  the  “monopolies,”  which  had  been  abolished  under 
Elizabeth  (§  440). 

By  these  grants  certain  persons  bought  the  sole  right  of  dealing 
in  nearly  every  article  of  food,  drink,  fuel,  and  clothing.  The 
Commons  denounced  this  outrage.  One  member  said  :  “  The 
‘  monopolists  ’  have  seized  everything.  They  sip  in  our  cup,  they 
sup  in  our  dish,  they  sit  by  our  fire.” 

486.  Eliot’s  Remonstrance  (1629). — Sir  John  Eliot  (§483) 
drew  up  a  remonstrance  against  these  new  acts  of  royal  tyranny, 
but  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  acting  under  the 
King’s  order,  refused  to  put  the  measure  to  vote,  and  endeavored 
to  adjourn. 

Several  members  sprang  forward  and  held  him  in  his  chair  until 
the  resolutipns  were  passed,  which  declared  that  whoever  levied  or 
paid  any  taxes  not  voted  by  Parliament,  or  attempted  to  make  any 
change  in  religion,  was  an  enemy  to  the  kingdom.  In  revenge 
Charles  sent  Eliot  to  close  confinement  in  the  Tower.  He  died 
there  three  years  later,  a  martyr  in  the  cause  of  liberty. 

487.  The  King  rules  without  Parliament;  “Thorough.”  — 
For  the  next  eleven  years  (1629-1640)  the  King  ruled  without 
a  Parliament.  The  obnoxious  Buckingham  (§  483)  had  led  an 
expedition  against  France  which  resulted  in  miserable  failure. 
He  was  about  setting  out  on  a  second  expedition  to  aid  the 
Huguenots,  who  had  rebelled  against  the  French  King,  when 
he  was  assassinated  (1628).  His  successor  was  Sir  Thomas 
Wentworth,  who  later  (1640)  became  Earl  of  Strafford.  Went¬ 
worth  had  signed  the  Petition  of  Right  (§  484),  but  he  was 
now  a  renegade  to  liberty,  and  wholly  devoted  to  the  King. 
By  means  of  the  Star-Chamber  (§382)  and  his  scheme  called 

1  Petition  of  Right :  see  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix, 
page  xvi,  §  17,  and  page  xxix. 


242  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1625-1649 


“Thorough,”  which  meant  that  he  would  stop  at  nothing  to  make 
Charles  absolute,  he  labored  to  establish  a  complete  despotism. 

Bishop  Laud,  who  had  become  head  of  the  Church,  worked 
with  him  through  the  High  Commission  Court  (§  433).  Together, 
the  two  exercised  a  crushing  and  merciless  system  of  political  and 
religious  tyranny  ;  the  Star-Chamber  fining  and  imprisoning  those 
who  refused  the  illegal  demands  for  money  made  upon  them,  the 
High  Commission  Court  showing  itself  equally  zealous  in  punish¬ 
ing  those  who  could  not  conscientiously  conform  to  the  Established 
Church  of  England.1 

Charles  exasperated  the  Puritans  still  further  by  reissuing  (1633) 
his  father’s  Declaration  of  Sunday  Sports,  which  had  never  really 
been  enforced.  This  Declaration  encouraged  parishioners  to 
dance,  play  games,  and  practise  archery  in  the  churchyards  after 
divine  service.  Laud  used  it  as  a  test,  and  turned  all  clergymen 
out  of  their  livings  who  refused  to  read  it  from  their  pulpits. 
When  the  Puritans  finally  got  the  upper  hand  (1644)  they  publicly 
burned  the  Declaration. 

488.  “Ship  Money”  (1637);  John  Hampden. — To  obtain 
means  with  which  to  equip  a  standing  army,  the  King  forced  the 
whole  country  to  pay  a  tax  known  as  “  ship  money,”  on  the 
pretext  that  it  was  needed  to  free  the  English  coast  from  the 
depredations  of  Algerine  pirates.  During  previous  reigns  an 
impost  of  this  kind  on  the  coast  towns  in  time  of  war  might  have 
been  considered  legitimate,  since  its  original  object  was  to  provide 
ships  for  the  national  defence. 

In  time  of  peace,  however,  such  a  demand  could  not  be  right¬ 
fully  made,  especially  on  the  inland  towns,  as  the  Petition  of 
Right  (§  484)  expressly  provided  that  no  money  should  be 
demanded  from  the  country  without  the  consent  of  its  repre¬ 
sentatives  in  Parliament.  John  Hampden  (§  483)  refused  to  pay 
the  twenty  shillings  required  from  him.  He  did  not  grudge  the 

1  To  strengthen  the  hands  of  Archbishop  Laud  and  to  secure  absolute  uniformity 
of  faith,  Charles  issued  (1628)  a  Declaration  (still  found  in  the  English  editions 
of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer),  which  forbade  any  one  to  understand  or  explain 
the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (§435)  in  any  sense  except  that  established  by  the  bishops 
and  the  King. 


625-1649]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  243 


■y 


money,  but  he  would  not  tamely  submit  to  have  even  that  tri¬ 
fling  sum  taken  from  him  contrary  to  law.  The  case  was  brought 
to  trial  (1637),  and  the  corrupt  judges  decided  for  the  King. 

489.  Hampden  and  Cromwell  endeavor  to  leave  the  Country.  — 
Meanwhile  John  Winthrop  with  many  other  Puritans  emigrated 
to  America  to  escape  oppression.  According  to  tradition  John 
Hampden  (§  488)  and  his  cousin,  Oliver  Cromwell,  who  was  a 
member  of  the  last  Parliament,  embarked  on  a  vessel  in  the 
Thames  for  New  England.  But  it  is  said  that  they  were  prevented 
from  sailing  by  the  King’s  order.  The  two  friends  remained  to 
teach  the  despotic  sovereign  a  lesson  which  neither  he  nor 
England  ever  forgot.1 

490.  The  Difficulty  with  the  Scottish  Church  (1637). — The 

King  determined  to  force  the  use  of  a  prayer-book,  similar  to  that 
used  in  the  English  Church  (§  414),  on  the  Scotch  Puritans.  But 
no  sooner  had  the  Dean  of  Edinburgh  opened  the  book  than  a 
general  cry  arose  in  the  church,  “  A  Pope,  a  Pope  !  Antichrist  ! 
stone  him  !  ”  When  the  bishops  endeavored  to  appease  the 
tumult,  the  enraged  congregation  clapped  and  yelled. 

Again  the  dean  tried  to  read  a  prayer  from  the  hated  book, 
when  an  old  woman  hurled  her  stool  at  his  head,  shouting,  “  D  ’ye 
mean  to  say  mass2  at  my  lug  [ear]  ?  ”  Riots  ensued,  and  eventu¬ 
ally  the  Scotch  solemnly  bound  themselves  by  a  Covenant  to  resist 
all  attempts  to  change  their  religion.  The  King  resolved  to  force 
his  liturgy  on  the  Covenanters3  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 

But  he  had  no  money  to  pay  his  army,  and  the  “  Short  Parlia¬ 
ment  ”  which  he  summoned  (in  the  spring  of  1640)  refused  to 
grant  any  unless  the  King  would  redress  the  nation’s  grievances. 
As  a  last  resort,  he  summoned  that  memorable  Parliament  which 


1  Macaulay’s  Essay  on  Hampden,  Guizot’s  English  Revolution,  and  other  well- 
known  authorities,  relate  the  proposed  sailing  of  Hampden  and  Cromwell,  but  recent 
writers  question  its  truth. 

2  Mass :  here  used  for  the  Roman  Catholic  church  service. 

3  The  first  Covenanters  were  the  Scottish  leaders,  who,  in  1557,  bound  themselves 
by  a  solemn  covenant  to  overthrow  all  attempts  to  reestablish  the  Catholic  religion 
in  Scotland;  when  Charles  I  undertook  to  force  the  Scotch  to  accept  Episcopacy  the 
Puritan  party  in  Scotland  drew  up  a  new  covenant  (1638)  to  resist  it. 


244  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1625-1649 


met  in  November  of  1640.  It  sat  almost  continuously  for  thirteen 
years,  and  so  got  the  name  of  the  “  Long  Parliament.”  1 

491.  The  “Long  Parliament,”  1640;  Impeachment  of  Strafford 
and  Laud;  the  “Grand  Remonstrance.”  —  The  new  Parliament 
was  made  up  of  three  parties  :  the  Church  of  England  party,  the 
Presbyterian  party,  and  the  Independents  (§  474).  The  spirit  of 
this  body  soon  showed  itself.  John  Pym  (§  484),  the  leader  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  demanded  the  impeachment  of  Strafford 
(§  487)  for  high  treason  and  despotic  oppression.  He  was  tried 
and  sentenced  to  execution.  The  King  refused  to  sign  the  death 
warrant,  but  Strafford  himself  urged  him  to  do  so  in  order  to 
appease  the  people.  Charles,  frightened  at  the  tumult  that  had 
arisen,  and  entreated  by  his  wife,  finally  put  his  hand  to  the 
paper,  and  thus  sent  his  most  faithful  servant  to  the  block. 

Parliament  next  charged  Laud  (§  487)  with  attempting  to  over¬ 
throw  the  Protestant  religion.  It  condemned  him  to  prison, 
and  ultimately  to  death.  Next,  it  abolished  the  Star-Chamber  and 
the  High  Commission  Court  (§§  382,  433,  487).  It  next  passed 
the  Triennial  Act,2  a  bill  requiring  Parliament  to  be  summoned 
once  in  three  years,  and  also  a  statute  forbidding  the  collection 
of  “  ship  money  ”  unless  authorized  by  Parliament. 

Under  the  leadership  of  Pym,  it  followed  this  by  drawing  up 
the  “  Grand  Remonstrance,”  3  which  was  printed  and  circulated 
throughout  the  country.  The  “  Remonstrance  ”  set  forth  the 
faults  of  the  King’s  government,  while  it  declared  utter  distrust 
of  his  policy.  Cromwell  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  if  the  House 
of  Commons  had  failed  to  adopt  and  print  the  “  Remonstrance  ” 
he  would  have  left  England  never  to  return.  The  radicals  in  the 
House  next  made  an  attempt  to  pass  the  “  Root  and  Branch 
Bill,”  for  the  complete  destruction  —  “  root  and  branch  ”  —  of 
the  Episcopal  Church  of  England.  Finally,  the  House  enacted 


1  Long  Parliament :  it  was  not  finally  dissolved  until  1660,  twenty  years  from  its 
first  meeting. 

2  The  Triennial  Act  was  repealed  (in  form  only)  in  1664;  it  was  reenacted  in 
1694  ;  in  1716  it  was  superseded  by  the  Septennial  Act  (§  584). 

3  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  Appendix,  page  xvii,  §  19. 


1625-1649]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  245 


5*/ 


a  law  forbidding  the  dissolution  of  the  present  Parliament  except 
by  its  own  consent. 

492.  The  Attempted  Arrest  of  the  Five  Members  (1642). — 

The  parliamentary  leaders  had  entered  into  communication  with 
the  Scots  and  so  laid  themselves  open  to  a  charge  of  treason.  It 
was  rumored,  too,  that  they  were  about  to  take  a  still  bolder  step 
and  impeach  the  Queen  for  having  conspired  with  the  Catholics 
and  the  Irish  to  destroy  the  liberties  of  the  country.  No  one 
knew  better  than  Charles  how  strong  a  case  could  be  made  out 
against  his  frivolous  and  unprincipled  consort. 

Driven  to  extremities,  he  determined  to  seize  the  five  members, 
John  Hampden,  John  Pym,  and  three  others,  who  headed  the 
opposition.1  The  House  of  Commons  was  requested  to  give  them 
up  for  trial.  The  request  was  not  complied  with.  The  Queen 
urged  him  to  take  them  by  force,  saying,  “  Go  along,  you  coward, 
and  pull  those  rascals  out  by  the  ears  !  ”  Thus  taunted,  the  King, 
attended  by  an  armed  force,  went  on  the  next  day  to  the  House 
of  Parliament,  purposing  to  seize  the  members.  They  had  been 
forewarned,  and  had  left  the  House,  taking  refuge  in  the  city, 
which  showed  itself  then,  as  always,  on  the  side  of  liberty.  Leav¬ 
ing  his  soldiers  at  the  door,  the  King  entered  the  House.  Seeing 
that  the  members  were  absent,  the  King  turned  to  the  Speaker 
and  asked  where  they  were.  The  Speaker,  kneeling  before  the 
King,  answered,  “  May  it  please  your  Majesty,  I  have  neither 
eyes  to  see  nor  tongue  to  speak  in  this  place  but  as  this  House  is 
pleased  to  direct  me.”  Vexed  that  he  could  learn  nothing 
further,  Charles  left  the  hall  amid  ominous  cries  of  “  Privilege  ! 
privilege  !  ”  2 

493.  The  Great  Civil  War  (1642-1649)  between  the  King  and 
Parliament.  —  The  King,  baffled  in  his  purpose,  resolved  to 
coerce  Parliament  by  military  force.  He  left  London  in  1642, 


1  The  full  list  was  Hampden,  Pym,  Hollis,  Haselrig,  and  Strode,  to  which  a  sixth, 
Mandeville,  was  added  later.  See  Copley’s  fine  picture  of  the  Attempted  Arrest,  in 
the  Boston  Public  Library. 

2  Privilege  :  the  privilege  of  Parliament  to  debate  all  questions  exempt  from  royal 
interference. 


246  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1625-1649 


never  to  return  until  he  came  as  a  prisoner,  and  was  delivered 
into  the  custody  of  that  legislative  body  that  he  had  insulted 
and  defied.  Parliament  now  attempted  to  come  to  an  under¬ 
standing  with  the  King. 

There  was  then  no  standing  army  in  England,  but  each  county 
and  large  town  had  a  body  of  militia,  formed  of  citizens  who  were 
occasionally  mustered  for  drill.  This  militia  was  under  the  con¬ 
trol  of  the  King.  Parliament  insisted  on  his  resigning  that  control 
to  them.  Charles  refused  to  give  up  his  undoubted  constitutional 
right  in  the  matter,  raised  the  royal  flag  at  Nottingham  (August, 
1642).  Parliament  then  organized  its  army,  and  the  war  began. 

494.  Cavaliers  and  Roundheads.  —  It  opened  in  the  autumn  of 
that  year  (1642)  with  the  battle  of  Edgehill,  Warwickshire,  and 
was  at  first  favorable  to  the  King.  On  his  side  were  a  majority 
of  the  nobility,'  the  clergy,  and  the  country  gentlemen.  They 
were  mainly  members  of  the  Church  of  England  and  were  known 
collectively  as  Cavaliers,  from  their  dashing  and  daring  horseman¬ 
ship.  Their  leader  was  Prince  Rupert,  a  nephew  of  Charles.1 

On  the  side  of  Parliament  were  the  shop-keepers,  small  farmers 
and  land-owners,  with  a  considerable  number  of  men  of  high  rank  ; 
as  a  rule  they  were  Puritans.  They  were  called  in  ridicule  the 
Roundheads,  because  many  of  them,  despising  the  long  locks  and 
effeminate  ringlets  worn  by  the  Cavaliers,  cut  their  hair  short  so 
that  it  showed  the  shape  of  the  head.2  Essex  and  Fairfax  were 
the  first  leaders  of  the  Roundheads ;  later,  Cromwell  became  their 
commander. 

495.  How  the  Country  was  divided ;  Rise  of  Political  News¬ 
papers.  —  Taking  England  as  a  whole,  we  may  say  that  the  south¬ 
eastern  half,  that  is,  what  was  then  the  richest  part  of  England, 
with  London  and  most  of  the  other  large  towns,  was  against  the 
King,  and  that  the  southwestern  half,  with  most  of  the  North, 
was  for  him.3  Each  side  made  great  sacrifices  in  carrying  on  the 

1  See  “A  Charge  with  Prince  Rupert,”  Atlantic  Magazine  (T.  W.  Higginson), 
III,  725.  Nottingham  is  in  Nottinghamshire,  in  the  east  of  England. 

2  The  Royalists,  or  Cavaliers,  called  them  “  those  round-headed  dogs  that  bawled 
against  bishops.” 

3  .See  Map  No.  15,  facing  page  248,  and  §34. 


WINDSOR  CASTLE  FROM  THE  THAMES 


625-1649]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  247 


war.  The  Queen  sold  her  crown  jewels,  and  the  Cavaliers  melted 
down  their  silver  plate  to  provide  money  to  pay  the  troops. 

On  behalf  of  the  people,  Parliament  imposed  heavy  taxes,  and 
levied  now  for  the  first  time  a  duty  on  domestic  products, 
especially  on  ales  and  liquors,  known  as  the  “  Excise  Tax.” 
Furthermore,  it  required  each  household  to  fast  once  a  week,  and 
to  give  the  price  of  a  dinner  to  support  the  army. 

Parliament  also  passed  what  was  called  the  “  Self-denying 
Ordinance”  (1644)  (repeated  in  1645).  It  required  all  mem¬ 
bers  who  held  any  civil  or  military  office  to  resign,  and,  as 
Cromwell  said,  “deny  themselves  and  their  private  interests  for 
the  public  good.”  The  real  object  of  this  measure  was  to  get 
rid  of  incompetent  commanders,  and  give  the  army  (soon  to 
be  remodelled)  the  vigorous  men  that  the  times  demanded. 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  war  great  numbers  of  little  local 
newspapers  sprang  into  short-lived  existence  in  imitation  of 
the  first  publication  of  that  sort,  the  Weekly  News,  which  was 
issued  not  quite  twenty  years  before  in  the  reign  of  James  1 
(§  474).  Each  of  the  rival  armies,  it  is  said,  carried  a  printing- 
press  with  it,  and  wraged  furious  battles  in  type  against  the 
other.  The  whole  country  was  inundated  with  floods  of 
pamphlets  discussing  every  conceivable  religious  and  political 
question.1 

496.  The  “New  Model”;  Death  of  John  Hampden;  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant  (1642-1645). — At  the  first  battle 
fought  (Edgehill,  Warwickshire)  (1642)  Cromwell  saw  that  the 
Cavaliers  had  the  advantage,  and  told  Hampden  (§  492)  that 
“  a  set  of  poor  tapsters  [drawers  of  liquor]  and  town  apprentices 
would  never  fight  against  men  of  honor.”  He  forthwith  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  organize  his  regiment  of  “  Ironsides,”  a  “lovely  com¬ 
pany,”  as  he  said,  none  of  whom  swore  or  gambled. 

After  the  first  Self-denying  Ordinance  was  passed  (§  495), 
Cromwell  and  Fairfax  formed  a  new  army  of  “  God-fearing  men  ” 
on  the  same  pattern,  almost  all  of  whom  were  Independents 
(§  491).  This  was  called  the  “  New  Model”  (1645)  and  was  placed 
1  About  thirty  thousand  pamphlets  came  out  between  1640  and  1660. 


248  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1625-1649 


under  the  joint  command  of  the  men  who  organized  it.  Very 
many  of  its  officers  were  kinsmen  of  Cromwell’s,  and  it  speedily 
became  the  most  formidable  body  of  soldiers  of  its  size  in  the 
world,  —  always  ready  to  preach,  pray,  exhort,  or  fight.1 

Meanwhile  John  Hampden  (§  488)  had  been  mortally 
wounded  in  a  skirmish  at  Chalgrove  Field,  Oxfordshire.  His 
death  was  a  terrible  blow  to  the  parliamentary  army  fighting 
in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  the  people.2 

Parliament  endeavored  to  persuade  the  Scotch  to  give  their 
aid  in  the  war  against  the  King.  They  finally  agreed  to  do  so 
(1643)  on  condition  that  Parliament  would  sign  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant  (§  490).  The  Covenant,  when  it  was 
established  (1647),  made  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  worship  the 
state  religion  of  England  and  Ireland.  In  reality  only  a  small 
part  of  the  English  people  accepted  it ;  but  the  change  forced  a 
large  number  of  Episcopal  clergymen  to  leave  their  parishes. 

497.  Marston  Moor  and  Naseby  (1644,  1645).  —  On  the  field 
of  Marston  Moor  (1644)  the  North  of  England  was  conquered 
by  Cromwell  with  his  invincible  little  army.  The  following  year 
Cromwell’s  “  Ironsides,”  who  “  tnisted  in  God  and  kept  their 
powder  dry,”  gained  the  decisive  victory  of  Naseby  (1645)  in 
the  Midlands.3  After  the  fight  papers  belonging  to  the  King 
were  picked  up  on  the  battle-field.  They  proved  that  Charles 
intended  betraying  those  who  were  negotiating  with  him  for 
peace,  and  that  he  was  planning  to  bring  foreign  troops  to  Eng¬ 
land.  The  discovery  of  these  papers,  which  were  published  by 
Parliament,  was  more  damaging  to  the  royal  cause  than  the 
defeat  itself. 

498.  The  King  and  Parliament.  —  Standing  on  the  walls  of 
Chester,  Charles  saw  his  last  army  defeated  (1645).  Shortly 
afterward  he  fled  to  the  Scots.  Oxford,  the  King’s  chief  city 

1  “  The  common  soldiers,  as  well  as  the  officers,  did  not  only  pray  and  preach 
among  themselves,  but  went  up  into  the  pulpits  in  all  churches  and  preached 
to  the  people.”  —  Clarendon,  History  of  the  Rebellion ,  Book  X,  p.  79. 

2  See  Macaulay’s  Essay  on  Hampden.  Clarendon  says  that  Hampden’s  death 

produced  as  great  consternation  in  his  party  “  as  if  their  whole  army  had  been 
cut  off.”  3  See  Map  No.  75,  facing  page  248. 


The  country  west  of  the  broad  dotted  line  supported  the  cause  of  Charles  I : 
that  on  the  east  supported  Parliament. 


1625-1649]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  249 


in  the  Midlands,  surrendered  to  Fairfax  (1646).  The  first  civil 
war  was  now  practically  over.  The  Scots  gave  up  the  King 
(1647)  to  the  parliamentary  commissioners,  and  he  was  taken 
to  Holmby  House,  Northamptonshire.  There  Cromwell  and 
the  army  made  overtures  to  him,  but  without  effect.'  He  was 
then  brought  by  the  parliamentary  army  to  Hampton  Court, 
near  London. 

Here,  and  elsewhere,  the  army  again  attempted  to  come  to 
some  definite  understanding  with  the  King,  but  all  to  no  pur¬ 
pose.  Politically  speaking,  Charles  was  his  own  worst  enemy. 
He  was  false  to  the  core,  and,  as  Carlyle  has  said  :  “A  man  whose 
word  will  not  inform  you  at  all  wfiat  he  means,  or  will  do,  is 
not  a  man  you  can  bargain  with.  You  must  get  out  of  that 
man’s  way,  or  put  him  out  of  yours.”1 

499.  The  Second  Civil  War  (1648);  Pride’s  Purge  (1648). — 
After  two  years  spent  in  fruitless  negotiations,  Charles,  who  had 
fled  to  Carisbrooke  Castle  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  made  a  secret 
treaty  with  the  Scots  (1648),  promising  to  sanction  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  England  (§  496),  if  they  would 
send  an  army  into  the  country  to  restore  him  to  the  throne.2 

The  Scots  marched  into  England,  the  Royalists  rose  to  aid 
them,  and  the  second  civil  war  began.  It  speedily  ended  in  the 
utter  defeat  of  the  Royalists.  The  army  now  vowed  that  they 
would  bring  the  King  to  justice.  To  this  neither  the  Presby¬ 
terians  in  the  House  of  Commons  nor  the  members  of  the 
House  of  Lords  would  agree. 

Colonel  Pride  then  proceeded  (1648),  as  he  said,  to  purge  the 
“  Long  Parliament”  (§  491)  by  driving  out  all  who  were  opposed 
to  this  measure.  Cromwell  had  no  part  in  Pride’s  expulsion  of 
members,  though  he  afterwards  expressed  his  approval  of  it. 
Those  who  remained  were  a  small  body  of  Independents  only 
(§  491).  They  did  not  number  sixty  ;  they  became  the  mere  tool 

1  Carlyle’s  Past  and  Present. 

2  When  Cromwell  found  out  through  his  spies  that  Charles  had  resolved  to  destroy 
him  and  the  Independent  army  by  forming  an  alliance  with  the  Scots  and  the  Pres¬ 
byterians,  he  seems  to  have  made  up  his  mind  to  put  the  King  to  death.  See  Lord 
Broghill’s  story  in  Gardiner’s  History  of  the  Great  Civil  War,  III,  259. 


250  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1625-1649 


of  the  parliamentary  army  and  were  called  in  derision  the 
“Rump  Parliament.” 

500.  Execution  of  the  King  (1649). — This  legislative  rem¬ 
nant  next  named  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  persons  to  con¬ 
stitute  a  high  court  of  justice  to  try  the  King  on  a  charge  of 
treason  against  the  nation  ;  the  chief  judge  or  presiding  officer 
was  John  Bradshaw.  Out  of  this  number  less  than  half  were 
present  throughout  the  trial.  Of  those  who  remained  and 
signed  the  death  warrant  Cromwell  was  one.  Prince  Charles, 
then  a  refugee  in  France,  made  every  effort  to  save  his  father. 
He  sent  a  blank  paper  bearing  his  signature  and  seal  to  the 
judges,  offering  to  bind  hfmself  to  any  conditions  they  might 
insert,  provided  they  would  spare  his  father’s  life  ;  but  no  answer 
was  returned. 

The  King  was  brought  into  court  (Jan.  20,  1649);  a  week 
later  the  trial  was  over.  The  judges  pronounced  sentence  of 
death  on  “  Charles  Stuart,  King  of  England,”  as  a  “  tyrant,  traitor, 
murderer,  and  public  enemy.” 

Throughout  the  trial  Charles  bore  himself  with  dignity  and 
self-possession.  The  crisis  had  brought  out  the  best  elements  of 
his  nature.  He  was  beheaded  (Jan.  30,  1649)  in  London  in 
front  of  the  royal  palace  of  Whitehall.  “  A  great  shudder  ran 
through  the  crowd  that  saw  the  deed,  then  came  a  shriek,  and 
all  immediately  dispersed.”  Tradition  declares  that  Cromwell 
went  secretly  that  night  to  see  the  beheaded  corpse.  He  looked 
steadfastly  at  it,  shook  his  head,  sighed  out  the  words,  “  Cruel 
necessity  !  ”  and  departed.1 

501.  Summary.  —  The  whole  of  Charles  I’s  reign  must  be 
regarded  as  a  prolonged  struggle  between  the  King  and  the 
nation.  Under  the  Tudors  and  James  I  the  royal  power  had 
been  growing  more  and  more  despotic,  while  at  the  same  time 
the  progress  of  the  Protestant  Reformation  and  of  Puritanism  had 
encouraged  freedom  of  thought. 

Between  these  opposite  forces  a  collision  was  inevitable,  since 
religious  liberty  always  favors  political  liberty.  Had  Charles 
1  Gardiner’s  Great  Civil  War,  III,  604. 


By  Charles  Lucy,  R.A. 


(Cromwell  resolving  to  refuse  the  crown.  See  §  507.) 


1625-1649]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  25  I 


known  how  to  yield  in  time,  or  been  sincere  in  the  concessions 
which  he  did  make,  all  might  have  gone  well.  His  duplicity  was 
his  ruin.  Though  his  death  did  not  absolutely  destroy  the  theory 
of  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings,  yet  it  gave  it  a  blow  from  which 
it  never  recovered. 

THE  COMMONWEALTH  AND  PROTECTORATE  —  1649-1660 

502.  Establishment  of  the  Commonwealth,  or  Republic  (1649- 
1660).  — While  the  crowd  that  had  witnessed  the  execution  of 
Charles  I  was  leaving  the  spot  (Jan.  30,  1649),  the  remnant 
of  the  House  of  Commons  met.  This  “  Rump  Parliament  ” 
(§  499),  composed  of  only  about  fifty  members,  claimed  the  right 
to  act  for  the  whole  nation.  A  few  days  later,  it  abolished  the 
House  of  Lords  as  “useless  and  dangerous.”  Next,  for  similar 
reasons,  it  abolished  the  office  of  king. 

England  was  now  a  republic,  governed,  in  name  at  least,  by  a 
Council  of  State.  Of  this  Council  John  Bradshaw  (§  500)  was 
president,  and  the  poet  Milton  was  foreign  secretary,  while  Fairfax 
with  Cromwell  had  command  .of  the  army.  The  real  power  was  in 
the  army,  and  the  true  head  of  the  army  was  Cromwell.  Without 
him  the  so-called  republic  could  not  have  stood  a  day. 

503.  Radical  Changes.  — All  members  of  the  House  of  Com¬ 
mons,  with  those  who  held  any  civil  or  military  office,  were 
required  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  Commonwealth  “  without 
king  or  House  of  Lords.”  The  use  of  the  English  church  service 
was  forbidden,  and  the  statues  of  Charles  in  London  were  pulled 
down  and  demolished. 

'The  great  seal  of  England  had  already  been  cast  aside,  and  a 
new  one  adopted,  having  on  one  side  a  map  of  England  and 
Ireland,  on  the  other  a  representation  of  the  House  of  Commons 
in  session,  with  the  words,  “  In  the  first  year  of  freedom,  by 
God’s  blessing  restored  1648.”  1 

504.  Difficulties  of  the  New  Republic.  —  Shortly  after  the 
establishment  of  the  Commonwealth,  Fairfax  resigned  his  com- 

1  1648  Old  Style  would  here  correspond  to  1649  New  Style.  See  §  594,  note  2. 


252  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1649-1658 


mand,  and  Cromwell  became  the  sole  leader  of  the  military 
forces  of  the  country.  But  the  new  Government,  even  with  his 
aid,  had  no  easy  task  before  it. 

It  had  enemies  in  the  Royalists,  who,  since  the  King’s  execu¬ 
tion,  had  grown  stronger ;  in  the  Presbyterians,  who  hated  both 
the  “  Rump  Parliament”  (§502)  and  the  parliamentary  army; 
finally,  it  had  enemies  in  its  own  ranks  in  half-crazy  fanatics, 
“Levellers,”1  “  Come-outers,”  2  and  other  “cattle  and  creeping 
things,”  who  would  be  satisfied  with  nothing  but  destruction  and 
confusion. 

Among  them  were  communists,  who,  like  those  of  the  present 
day,  wished  to  abolish  private  property,  and  establish  “  an  equal 
division  of  unequal  earnings,”  while  others  declared  and  acted 
out  their  belief  in  the  coming  end  of  the  world.  Eventually 
Cromwell  had  to  deal  with  these  enthusiasts  in  a  decided  way, 
especially  as  some  of  them  threatened  to  assassinate  him  in  order 
to  hasten  the  personal  reign  of  Christ  and  his  saints  on  earth. 

505.  The  Late  King’s  Son  proclaimed  King  in  Ireland  and 
Scotland  ;  Dunbar  ;  Worcester  (1649  1651).  — The  attempt  of  the 
English  Puritan  party  to  root  out  Catholicism  in  Ireland  (1641) 
had  caused  a  horrible  insurrection.  The  Royalist  party  in  Ireland 
now  proclaimed  Prince  Charles  King.  Cromwell  was  deputed  to 
reduce  that  country  to  order,  and  to  destroy  the  Royalists.  To 
his  invincible  army  of  Independents  nothing  could  have  been 
more  congenial  than  such  a  crusade.  They  descended  upon  the 
unhappy  island  (1649),  and  wiped  out  the  rebellion  in  such  a 
whirlwind  of  fire  and  slaughter  that  the  horror  of  the  visitation 
has  never  been  forgotten.  To  this  day  the  direst  imprecation  a 
southern  Irishman  can  utter  is,  “  The  curse  of  Cromwell  on  ye  !  ”  3 

Not  satisfied  with  these  terrible  measures,  Cromwell  resolved  to 

1  “  Levellers  ”  :  a  name  given  to  certain  radical  republicans  who  wished  to  reduce 
all  ranks  and  classes  to  the  same  level  with  respect  to  political  power  and  privileges. 

2  “  Come-outers  ”  :  this,  though  a  modern  term,  describes  a  class  who  abandoned 
all  established  ways,  both  of  government  and  religion. 

3  At  Drogheda  and  Wexford,  on  the  east  coast  of  Ireland,  Cromwell,  acting  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  war  of  that  day,  massacred  the  garrisons  which  refused 
to  surrender. 


1649-1658]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  253 


drive  the  greater  part  of  the  population  of  Ireland  from  their 
lands.  His  plan  was  to  force  them  to  settle  in  the  west  of  the 
island  in  the  barren  and  desolate  province  of  Connaught.  Thou¬ 
sands  were  compelled  to  go  into  this  dreary  exile,  and  hundreds 
of  families  who  refused  were  shipped  to  the  Barbadoes  and  sold 
as  slaves,  as  was  often  done  in  that  day  with  prisoners  of  war. 

In  Scotland  also  Prince  Charles  was  looked  upon  as  the  legiti¬ 
mate  sovereign  by  a  strong  and  influential  party.  He  found  in 
the  brave  Montrose,1  who  was  hanged  for  treason  at  Edinburgh, 
and  in  other  loyal  supporters,  far  better  friends  than  he  deserved. 
The  prince  came  to  Scotland  (1650),  and  took  the  oath  of  the 
Covenant  (§  490).  It  must  have  been  a  bitter  pill  for  a  man  of 
his  free  and  easy  temperament.  But  worse  was  to  come,  for  the 
Scottish  Puritans  made  him  sign  a  paper  declaring  that  his 
father  had  been  a  tyrant  and  that  his  mother  was  an  idolater. 
No  wonder  the  caricatures  of  the  day  represented  the  Scots  as 
holding  the  prince’s  nose  to  a  grindstone.'2  Later,  Charles  rallied 
a  small  force,  but  it  was  utterly  defeated  at  Dunbar  (1650). 

Twelve  months  afterward,  on  the  anniversary  of  his  defeat  at 
Dunbar,  Charles  made  a  second  attempt  to  obtain  the  crown. 
At  the  battle  of  Worcester  Cromwell  again  routed  his  forces  and 
brought  the  war  to  an  end.  Charles  escaped  into  Shropshire, 
where  he  hid  for  a  day  in  an  oak  at  Boscobel.  After  many  narrow 
escapes  he  at  length  succeeded  in  getting  out  of  the  country. 

506.  Cromwell  expels  Parliament. — Cromwell  now  urged  the 
necessity  of  calling  a  Parliament  which  should  represent  the  coun¬ 
try,  reform  the  laws^and  pass  a  general  act  of  pardon.  In  his 
despatch  to  the  House  of  Commons  after  the  victory  of  Worcester, 
he  called  the  battle  a  “  crowning  mercy.”  Some  of  the  repub¬ 
licans  in  that  body  took  alarm  at  this  phrase,  and  thought  that 
Cromwell  used  it  to  foreshadow  a  design  to  place  the  crown  on  his 
own  head.  For  this  reason,  perhaps,  they  hesitated  to  dissolve. 


1  See  Aytoun’s  Scottish  Ballads:  The  Execution  of  Montrose.  Charles  basely 
abandoned  Montrose  to  his  fate. 

2  See  a  reproduction  of  this  famous  caricature  in  the  illustrated  edition  of  Green’s 
Short  History  of  the  English  People,  III,  1216. 


254  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1649-1658 

But  at  last  they  could  not  withstand  the  pressure,  and  a  bill 
was  introduced  (1653)  for  summoning  a  new  Parliament  of  four 
hundred  members,  but  with  the  provision  that  all  members  of  the 
present  House  were  to  keep  their  seats,  and  have  the  right  to 
reject  newly  elected  members. 

Cromwell,  with  the  army,  believed  this  provision  a  trick  on  the 
part  of  the  “Rump”  (§502)  to  keep  themselves  in  perpetual 
power. 

Sir  Harry  Vane,  who  was  a  leading  member  of  the  House,  and 
who  had  been  governor  of  the  colony  of  Massachusetts,  feared 
that  the  country  was  in  danger  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  Crom¬ 
well  as  military  dictator.  He  therefore  urged  the  immediate 
passage  of  the  bill  as  it  stood.  Cromwell  heard  that  a  vote 
was  about  to  be  taken.  Putting  himself  at  the  head  of  a  squad 
of  soldiers,  whom  he  left  at  the  door,  he  suddenly  entered  the 
House  (1653). 

After  listening  to  the  debate  for  some  time,  he  rose  from  his 
seat  and  charged  the  Commons  with  injustice  and  misgovernment. 
A  member  remonstrated.  Cromwell  grew  excited,  saying,  “  You 
are  no  Parliament  !  I  say  you  are  no  Parliament  !  ”  Then  he 
called  in  the  musketeers.  The  Speaker  was  dragged  from  his 
chair,  and  the  members  driven  after  him. 

As  they  passed  out,  Cromwell  shouted,  “drunkard,”  “glutton,” 
“  extortioner,”  with  other  opprobrious  names.  When  all  were 
gone,  he  locked  the  door  and  put  the  key  in  his  pocket.  During 
the  night  some  Royalist  wag  nailed  a  placard  on  the  door,  bearing 
the  inscription  in  large  letters,  “This  House  to  let,  unfurnished  !  ” 

507.  Cromwell  becomes  Protector  ;  the  “  Instrument  of  Govern¬ 
ment  ”  (1653). — Cromwell  now  summoned  a  new  Parliament, 
which  was  practically  of  his  own  choosing.  It  consisted  of 
one  hundred  and  thirty-nine  members,  and  was  known  as  the 
“  Little  Parliament.”  1  The  Royalists  nicknamed  it  “  Barebone’s 


1  A  regularly  summoned  Parliament,  elected  by  the  people,  would  have  been 
much  larger.  This  was  chosen  from  a  list  furnished  to  the  Council  of  State  by  the 
ministers  of  the  various  Independent  churches.  It  was  in  no  true  sense  a  representa¬ 
tive  body. 


1649-1658]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  255 


Parliament  ”  from  one  of  its  members,  a  London  leather  merchant 
named  Praise-God  Barebone.  Notwithstanding  the  irregularity 
of  its  organization  and  the  ridicule  cast  upon  it,  the  “  Barebone’s 
Parliament”  proposed  several  reforms  of  great  value,  which  the 
country  auerward  adopted. 

A  council  of  Cromwell’s  leading  men  now  presented  a  consti¬ 
tution,  entitled  the  “  Instrument  of  Government.” 1  It  made 
Cromwell  Lord  Protector  of  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland. 

Up  to  this  time  the  Commonwealth  had  been  a  republic, 
nominally  under  the  control  of  the  House  of  Commons,  but  as 
a  matter  of  fact  governed  by  Cromwell  and  the  army.  Now  it 
became  a  republic  under  a  Protector,  or  President,  who  was  to 
hold  his  office  for  life. 

A  few  years  later  (1657),  Parliament  adopted  a  second  consti¬ 
tution,  called  the  “  Humble  Petition  and  Advice.”  2  It  offered 
Cromwell  the  crown.  He  would  have  taken  it ;  but,  finding  the 
army  would  not  support  him  in  such  a  step,  reluctantly  relin¬ 
quished  it.  He  at  the  same  time  endeavored  to  restore  the 
House  of  Lords,  but  could  not  get  them  to  attend. 

508.  Emigration  of  Royalists  to  America.  —  Under  the  tyranny 
of  the  Stuart  kings,  John  Winthrop  and  many  other  noted  Puritans 
had  emigrated  to  Massachusetts  and  other  parts  of  New  England. 
During  the  Commonwealth  the  case  was  reversed,  and  numbers  of 
Royalists  fled  to  Virginia.  Among  them  were  John  Washington, 
the  great-grandfather  of  George  Washington,  and  the  ancestors  of 
Jefferson,  Patrick  Henry,  the  Lees,  Randolphs,  and  other  promi¬ 
nent  families,  destined  in  time  to  found  a  republic  in  the  new 
world  much  more  democratic  than  anything  the  old  had  ever  seen. 

1  “  Instrument  of  Government  ” :  the  principal  provisions  of  this  constitution 
were:  1.  The  government  was  vested  in  the  Protector  and  a  council  appointed  for 
life.  2.  Parliament  to  be  summoned  every  three  years,  and  not  to  be  dissolved  under 
five  months.  3.  A  standing  army  of  thirty  thousand  to  be  maintained.  4.  All  taxes 
to  be  levied  by  Parliament.  5.  The  system  of  representation  was  reformed,  so  that 
many  large  places  hitherto  without  representation  in  Parliament  now  obtained 
it.  6.  All  Roman  Catholics,  and  those  concerned  in  the  Irish  rebellion,  were 
disfranchised  forever. 

2  The  “Humble  Petition  and  Advice”  was  a  modification  of  the  “  Instrument 
of  Government.” 


256  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1649-1658 

509.  Cromwell  as  a  Ruler  ;  Puritan  Fanaticism.  — When  Crom¬ 
well’s  new  Parliament  ventured  to  criticise  his  course,  he  dissolved 
them  (1654)  quite  as  peremptorily  as  the  late  king.  Soon  after¬ 
ward,  fear  of  a  Royalist  rebellion  led  him  to  divide  the  country 
into  eleven  military  districts  (1655),  each  governed  by  a  major- 
general,  who  ruled  by  martial  law  and  with  despotic  power.  All 
Royalist  families  were  heavily  taxed  to  support  the  standing 
army ;  all  Catholic  priests  were  banished,  and  no  books  or  papers 
could  be  published  without  permission  of  the  Government. 

Cromwell,  however,  though  compelled  to  resort  to  severe 
measures  to  secure  peace,  was,  in  spirit,  no  oppressor.  On  the 
contrary,  he  proved  himself  the  Protector  not  only  of  the  realm 
but  of  the  Protestants  of  Europe.  When  they  were  threatened 
with  persecution,  his  influence  saved  them.  He  showed,  too,  that 
in  an  age  of  bigotry  he  was  no  bigot.  Puritan  fanaticism,  exasper¬ 
ated  by  the  persecution  it  had  endured  under  James  and  Charles, 
often  went  to  the  utmost  extremes,  even  as  Hudibras 1  said,  to 
“  killing  of  a  cat  on  Monday  for  catching  of  a  rat  on  Sunday.” 

It  treated  the  most  innocent  customs,  if  they  were  in  any  way 
associated  with  Catholicism  or  Episcopacy,  as  serious  offences.  It 
closed  all  places  of  amusement ;  it  condemned  mirth  as  ungodly  ; 
it  was  a  sin  to  dance  round  a  May-pole,  or  to  eat  mince  pie  at 
Christmas.  Fox-hunting  and  horse-racing  were  forbidden,  and 
bear-baiting  prohibited,  “  not  because  it  gave  pain  to  the  bear,  but 
because  it  gave  pleasure  to  the  spectators.” 

In  such  an  age,  when  a  man  could  hardly  claim  to  be  religious 
unless  he  wore  sad-colored  raiment,  talked  through  his  nose,  and 
quoted  Scripture  at  every  sentence,  Crotnwell  showed  exceptional 
moderation  and  good  sense. 

510.  Cromwell’s  Religious  Toleration.  — He  favored  the  toler¬ 
ation  of  all  forms  of  worship  not  directly  opposed  to  the  gov¬ 
ernment  as  then  constituted.  He  befriended  the  Quakers,  who 
were  looked  upon  as  the  enemies  of  every  form  of  worship,  and 

1  Hudibras:  a  burlesque  poem  by  Samuel  Butler.  It  was  published  in  1663,  and 
satirizes  all  the  leading  persons  and  parties  of  the  Commonwealth,  but  especially 
the  Puritans. 


1649-1658]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  257 


were  treated  with  cruel  severity  both  in  England  and  America. 
He  was  instrumental  in  sending  the  first  Protestant  missionaries 
to  Massachusetts  to  convert  the  Indians,  then  supposed  by  many 
to  be  a  remnant  of  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel  •  and  after  an  exclusion 
of  many  centuries  (§  274),  he  permitted  the  Jews  to  return  to 
England,  and  even  to  build  a  synagogue  in  London. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  few  of  the  cathedral  or  parish 
churches  of  England  which  do  not  continue  to  testify  to  the 
destructive  hatred  which  during  the  civil  wars  vented  itself  on 
everything  savoring  of  the  rule  of  either  pope  or  bishop.1  The 
empty  niches,  where  some  gracious  image  of  the  Virgin  or  the 
figure  of  some  saint  once  looked  down  ;  the  patched  remnants 
of  brilliant  stained  glass,  once  part  of  a  picture  telling  some 
Scripture  story ;  the  tombs,  broken,  hacked,  and  hewed  by  pike 
and  sword  because  on  them  was  some  emblem  or  expression  of 
the  old  faith,  —  all  these  still  bear  witness  to  the  fury  of  the 
Puritan  soldiers,  who  did  not  respect  even  the  graves  of  their 
ancestors,  if  those  ancestors  had  once  thought  differently  from 
themselves. 

51 1.  Victories  by  Land  and  Sea  ;  the  Navigation  Act  (1651).  — 

Yet  during  Cromwell’s  rule  the  country,  notwithstanding  all 
the  restrictions  imposed  by  a  stern  military  government,  grew 
and  prospered.  The  English  forces  gained  victories  by  land 
and  sea,  and  made  the  name  of  the  Protector  respected  as  that 
of  Charles  had  never  been. 

At  this  period  the  carrying  trade  of  the  world  had  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  the  Dutch,  and  Amsterdam  had  become  a  more 
important  centre  of  exchange  than  London.  The  Common¬ 
wealth  passed  a  measure  called  the  “  Navigation  Act  ”2  (1651)  to 
encourage  British  commerce.  It  prohibited  the  importation  or 
exportation  of  any  goods  into  England  or  its  colonies  in  Dutch 
or  other  foreign  vessels. 

1  But  part  of  this  destruction  occurred  under  Henry  VIII  and  Edward  VI. 
§§  4°4,  416. 

2  The  Navigation  Act  was  renewed  in  1661,  1662,  1663,  and  1672.  Though 
aimed  at  the  Dutch,  these  measures  did  serious  damage,  for  a  time,  to  the  export 
trade  of  the  American  colonies. 


258  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1649-1658 


Later,  war  with  the  Dutch  broke  out  partly  on  account  of 
questions  of  trade,  and  partly  because  Royalist  plotters  found 
protection  in  Holland.  Then  Cromwell  created  such  a  navy  as 
the  country  had  never  before  possessed.  Under  the  command 
of  Admiral  Blake,  “  the  sea  king,”  and  Admiral  Monk,  the  Dutch 
were  finally  beaten  so  thoroughly  (1653)  that  they  bound  them¬ 
selves  to  ever  after  salute  the  English  flag  wherever  they  should 
meet  it  on  the  seas.  A  war  undertaken  in  alliance  with  France 
against  Spain  was  equally  successful.  Jamaica  was  taken  as  a 
permanent  possession  by  the  British  fleet,  and  France,  out  of 
gratitude  for  assistance,  gave  the  town  of  Dunkirk  to  England 
(1658),  so  that  the  flag  of  the  Commonwealth  was  now  planted 
on  the  French  coast. 

512.  Cromwell’s  Death;  his  Character  (1658).  —  After  being 
king  in  everything  but  name  for  five  years,  Cromwell  died 

Sept.  3,  1658)  on  the  anniversary  of  the  victories  of  Dunbar 
and  Worcester  (§  505).  During  the  latter  part  of  his  career 
he  had  lived  in  constant  dread  of  assassination,  and  wore  con¬ 
cealed  armor.  At  the  hour  of  his  death  one  of  the  most  fearful 
storms  was  raging  that  had  ever  swept  over  England.  To  many 
it  seemed  a  fit  accompaniment  to  the  close  of  such  a  life.1 

In  one  sense,  Cromwell  was  a  usurper  and  a  tyrant ;  but,  at 
heart,  his  object  was  his  country’s  welfare.  In  such  cases  the 
motive  is  all  in  all.  He  was  a  man  of  rough  exterior  and  hard 
manner.  He  cared  little  for  the  smooth  proprieties  of  life,  yet 
he  had  that  dignity  of  bearing  which  high  moral  purpose  gives. 
In  all  that  he  did  he  was  eminently  practical.  In  an  age  of 
isms,  theories,  and  experiments,  he  was  never  confused  and  never 
faltered  in  his  course. 

513.  The  Times  needed  Such  a  Man.  — There  are  emergencies 
when  an  ounce  of  decision  is  worth  a  pound  of  deliberation. 
When  the  ship  is  foundering  or  on  fire,  or  when  the  crew  have 


1  Cromwell  was  always  a  lonely  man,  and  had  so  few  real  friends  that  Walter 
Scott  may  have  expressed  his  true  feeling  when  he  makes  him  say  in  Woodstock : 
“  I  would  /  had  any  creature,  were  it  but  a  dog,  that  followed  me  because  it  loved  me, 
not  for  what  it  could  make  of  me.” 


1649-1658]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  259 


mutinied,  it  will  not  avail  to  sit  in  the  cabin  and  discuss  how  it 
happened.  Something  must  be  done,  and  that  promptly.  Crom¬ 
well  was  the  man  for  such  a  juncture.  He  saw  clearly  that  if 
the  country  was  to  be  kept  together,  it  must  be  by  decided 
measures,  which  no  precedent,  law,  or  constitution  justified,  but 
which  stood  justified  none  the  less  by  the  exigencies  of  the  crisis, 
by  his  own  conscious  rectitude  of  purpose,  and  by  the  result. 

If  there  is  any  truth  in  Napoleon’s  maxim,  that  “The  tools 
belong  to  him  that  can  use  them,”  then  Cromwell  had  a  God- 
given  right  to  rule  ;  for,  first,  he  had  the  ability ;  and,  next,  if 
we  except  his  campaign  in  Ireland  (§  505),  he  employed  it,  all 
things  considered,  on  the  side  of  order  and  of  justice. 

514.  Summary.  —  Cromwell’s  original  purpose  appears  to  have 
been  to  establish  a  government  representing  the  will  of  the  nation 
more  completely  than  it  had  ever  been  represented  before.  He 
favored  the  restoration  of  the  House  of  Lords,  he  endeavored  to 
reform  the  laws,  and  he  sought  to  secure  religious  toleration  for 
the  great  body  of  Protestants. 

Circumstances,  however,  were  often  against  him  ;  he  had  many 
enemies,  and  in  order  to  secure  peace  he  was  obliged  to  resort  to 
absolute  power.  Yet  the  difference  in  this  respect  between  him 
and  Charles  I  was  immense ;  the  latter  was  despotic  on  his  own 
account,  the  former  for  the  advantage  of  those  he  governed. 

RICHARD  CROMWELL  —  Sept.  3,  1658,  to  April  22,  1659 1 

515.  Richard  Cromwell’s  Incompetency.  —  Richard  Cromwell, 
Oliver’s  eldest  son,  now  succeeded  to  the  Protectorate.  He  was 
an  amiable  individual,  as  negative  in  character  as  his  father  had 
been  positive.  With  the  extreme  Puritans,  known  as  the  “  godly 
party,”  he  had  no  sympathy  whatever.  “  Here,”  said  he  to  one 
of  them,  pointing  to  a  friend  of  his  who  stood  by,  “  is  a  man  who 
can  neither  preach  nor  pray,  yet  I  would  trust  him  before  you 
all.”  Such  frankness  was  not  likely  to  make  the  new  ruler  popular 

1  Richard  Cromwell  continued  to  reside  in  the  royal  palace  of  Whitehall  until 
]uly,  but  he  virtually  gave  up  all  power  in  April. 


260  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1658-1660 


with  the  army,  made  up  of  men  who  never  lacked  a  Scripture 
text  to  justify  either  a  murder  or  a  massacre.  Moreover,  the 
times  were  perilous,  and  called  for  a  decided  hand  at  the  helm. 
After  a  brief  reign  of  less  than  eight  months  the  military  leaders 
requested  Richard  to  resign,  and  soon  afterward  recalled  the 
“  Rump  Parliament  ”  (§  499). 

516.  Richard  retires. — The  Protector  retired  not  only  with¬ 
out  remonstrance,  but  apparently  with  a  sense  of  relief  at  being 
so  soon  eased  of  a  burden  too  heavy  for  his  weak  shoulders  to 
carry.  To  the  people  he  was  hereafter  familiarly  known  as 
“  Tumble-down-Dick,”  and  was  caricatured  as  such  on  tavern 
sign-boards. 

The  nation  pensioned  him  oft'  with  a  moderate  allowance,  and 
he  lived  in  obscurity  to  an  advanced  age,  carrying  about  with 
him  to  the  last  a  trunk  filled  with  the  congratulatory  addresses 
and  oaths  of  allegiance  which  he  had  received  when  he  became 
Protector. 

Years  after  his  abdication  it  is  reported  that  he  visited  West¬ 
minster,  and  when  the  attendant,  who  did  not  recognize  him, 
showed  him  the  throne,  he  said,  “Yes;  I  have  not  seen  that 
chair  since  I  sat  in  it  myself  in  1659.” 

517.  The  “Convention  Parliament.” — The  year  following 
Richard’s  withdrawal  was  full  of  anxiety  and  confusion.  The 
army  had  turned  Parliament  out  of  doors  (1659).  There  was 
no  longer  any  regularly  organized  government,  and  the  country 
drifted  helplessly  like  a  ship  without  a  pilot. 

General  Monk,  then  commander-in-chief  in  Scotland,  now 
marched  into  England  (1660)  with  the  determination  of  calling 
a  new  Parliament,  which  should  be  full,  free,  and  representa¬ 
tive  of  the  real  political  feeling  of  the  nation.  When  he  reached 
London  with  his  army,  the  members  of  the  “  Rump  ”  had  resumed 
their  sessions. 

At  Monk’s  invitation  the  Presbyterian  members,  whom  Colonel 
Pride  had  driven  from  their  seats  eleven  years  before  (§  499),  now 
went  back.  This  assembly  issued  writs  for  the  summoning  of  a 
“  Convention  Parliament  ”  (so  styled  because  called  without  royal 


1658-1660]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  26 1 

authority),  and  then  dissolved  by  their  own  consent.  Thus  ended 
that  memorable  “Long  Parliament”  (§  491),  which  had  existed 
nearly  twenty  years.  About  a  month  later  the  Convention,  includ¬ 
ing  ten  members  of  the  House  of  Lords,  met,  and  at  once  invited 
Charles  Stuart,  then  in  Holland,  to  return  to  his  kingdom.  He 
had  made  certain  promises,  called  the  “  Declaration  of  Breda,”  1 
which  were  intended  to  smooth  the  way  to  his  return. 

518..  Summary.  — Richard  Cromwell’s  government  existed  in 
name  only,  never  in  fact.  During  his  so-called  Protectorate  the 
country  was  under  the  control  of  the  army  or  of  that  “  Rump 
Parliament  ”  which  represented  nothing  but  itself. 

The  period  which  elapsed  after  Oliver  Cromwell’s  death  was 
one  of  waiting  and  preparation.  It  ended  in  the  meeting  of  the 
free  national  Parliament,  which  put  an  end  to  the  republic,  and 
restored  royalty  in  the  person  of  Charles  II. 

CHARLES  1660-1685 

519.  The  Restoration  of  Monarchy;  Accession  of  Charles  ;  a  New 
Standing  Army. — The  English  army  heard  that  Charles  was  com¬ 
ing,  with  sullen  silence  ;  the  ex-members  of  the  “  Rump  ”  (§  515), 
with  sullen  dread  ;  the  rest  of  the  nation,  with  a  feeling  of  relief. 
However  much  they  had  hated  the  despotism  of  the  Stuarts,  four- 
fifths  of  the  people  welcomed  any  change  which  promised  to  do 
away  with  a  government  maintained  by  bayonets. 

Charles  was  received  at  Dover  with  the  wildest  demonstrations 
of  joy.  Bells  pealed,  flags  waved,  bonfires  blazed  all  the  way  to 
London,  and  the  King  said,  with  characteristic  irony,  “  It  must 
have  been  my  own  fault  that  I  did  not  come  before,  for  I  find  no 
one  but  declares  that  he  is  glad  to  see  me.” 

The  fact  that  the  republic  had  existed  was  as  far  as  possible 
ignored.  The  new  reign  was  dated,  not  when  it  actually  began, 

1  The  Declaration  of  Breda,  made  by  Charles  in  Holland  (1660),  promised :  — 

1.  Free  pardon  to  all  those  not  excepted  by  Parliament. 

2.  Liberty  of  conscience  to  all  whose  views  did  not  disturb  the  peace  of  the  realm. 

3.  The  settlement  by  Parliament  of  all  claims  to  landed  property. 

4.  The  payment  of  arrears  to  Monk’s  army. 


262  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1660-1685 


but  from  the  day  of  Charles  I’s  execution  twelve  years  before. 
The  troops  of  the  Commonwealth  were  speedily  disbanded,  but 
the  King  retained  a  picked  guard  of  five  thousand  men,  which 
became  the  nucleus  of  a  new  standing  army. 

520.  The  King’s  Character. — The  sovereign  who  now  as¬ 
cended  the  throne  was  in  every  respect  the  opposite  of  Cromwell. 
Charles  II  had  no  love  of  country,  no  sense  of  duty,  no  belief  in 
man,  no  respect  for  woman.  Evil  circumstances  and  evil  com¬ 
panions  had  made  him  “  a  good-humored  but  hard-hearted  volup¬ 
tuary.”  For  twelve  years  he  had  been  a  wanderer,  and  at  times 
almost  a  beggar.  Now  the  sole  aim  of  his  life  was  enjoyment. 
He  desired  to  be  king  because  he  would  then  have  every  means 
for  accomplishing  that  aim. 

521.  Reaction  from  Puritanism.  —  In  this  purpose  Charles  had 
the  sympathy  of  a  considerable  part  of  the  people.  The  Puritan 
faith  (§§  430,  469),  represented  by  such  men  as  Milton  and 
Hampden,  was  noble  indeed  ;  but  unfortunately  there  were  many 
in  its  ranks  who  had  no  like  grandeur  of  soul,  but  who  pushed 
Puritanism  to  its  most  injurious  and  offensive  extreme.  That 
attempt  to  reduce  the  whole  of  life  to  a  narrow  system  of  sour 
self-denial  had  at  last  broken  down. 

Now,  under  the  Restoration,  the  reaction  set  in,  and  the  lower 
and  earthly  side  of  human  nature  —  none  the  less  human  because 
it  is  at  the  bottom  and  not  at  the  top  —  seemed  determined  to 
take  its  full  revenge.  Butler  ridiculed  religious  zeal  in  his  poem 
of  “  Hudibras  ”  (§  509),  which  every  courtier  had  by  heart. 
Society  was  smitten  with  an  epidemic  of  immorality.  Profligacy 
became  the  fashion  in  both  speech  and  action,  and  much  of  the 
popular  literature  of  that  day  will  not  bear  the  light. 

522.  The  Royal  Favorites;  the  Cabal  (1667-1673).  — The  King 
surrounded  himself  with  men  like  himself.  They  vied  with  each 
other  in  dissipation  and  in  jests  on  each  other.  Charles’  two 
chief  favorites  were  the  Earl  of  Rochester,  a  gifted  but  ribald 
poet,  and  Lord  Shaftesbury,  who  became  chancellor.  Both  have 
left  on  record  their  estimate  of  their  royal  master.  The  first 
wrote  on  the  door  of  the  King’s  bed-chamber :  — 


1660-1685]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  263 


“  Here  lies  our  sovereign  lord,  the  King, 

Whose  word  no  man  relies  on  ; 
lie  never  says  a  foolish  thing, 

Nor  ever  does  a  wise  one.” 

To  which  Charles,  on  reading  it,  retorted,  “’Tis  true  !  because 
while  my  words  are  my  own,  my  acts  are  my  ministers’.” 

A  bright  repartee  tells  11s  what  the  second  favorite  thought. 
“Ah!  Shaftesbury,”  said  the  King  to  him  one  day,  “I  verily 
believe  you  are  the  wickedest  dog  in  my  dominions.”  “  Yes, 
your  Majesty,”  replied  Shaftesbury,  “for  a  subject  I  think  perhaps 
I  may  be.” 

The  new  reign,  from  a  political  point  of  view,  began  decently 
and  ably  with  the  Earl  of  Clarendon  as  leading  minister.  But  in 
a  few  years  it  degenerated  into  an  administration  called  the 
“Cabal”  1  (1667).  It  was  simply  a  government  of  debauchees, 
whose  sole  object  was  to  advance  their  own  private  interests  by 
making  the  King  supreme. 

Its  character  and  deeds  may  best  be  learned  from  that  picture 
of  the  council  of  the  “  infernal  peers,”  which  Milton  portrays 
in  “  Paradise  Lost,”  where  the  five  princes  of  evil,  Moloch, 
Belial,  Mammon,  Beelzebub,  and  Satan,  meet  in  the  palace  of 
Pandemonium  to  plot  the  ruin  of  the  world.2 

523.  Punishment  of  the  Regicides.  — The  first  act  of  Charles’ 
first  Parliament  was  to  proclaim  a  pardon  to  all  who  had  fought 
against  his  father  in  the  civil  war.  The  only  persons  excepted 


1  This  word  was  originally  used  to  designate  the  confidential  members  of  the 
King’s  private  council,  and  meant  perhaps  no  more  than  the  word  “cabinet”  does 
to-day.  In  1667  it  happened,  however,  by  a  singular  coincidence,  that  the  initial 
letters  of  the  five  persons  comprising  it,  namely,  (C)lifford,  (A)shley-Cooper  [Lord 
Shaftesbury],  (B)uckingham,  (A)rlington,  and  (L)auderdale,  formed  the  word 
CABAL,  which  henceforth  came  to  have  the  odious  meaning  of  secret  and  unscru¬ 
pulous  intrigue  that  it  has  ever  since  retained.  It  was  to  Charles  II’s  time  what 
the  political  “  ring”  is  to  our  own. 

2  Milton’s  Paradise  Lost,  Book  II.  The  first  edition  was  published  in  1667,  the 
year  the  Cabal  came  into  power,  though  its  members  had  long  been  favorites  with 
the  King.  It  has  been  supposed  by  some  that  the  great  Puritan  poet  had  them  in 
his  mind  when  he  represented  the  Pandemonic  debate.  Shaftesbury  and  Buckingham 
are  also  two  of  the  most  prominent  characters  in  Dryden’s  noted  political  satire  of 
Absalom  and  Achitophel,  published  in  1681. 


264  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1660-16S5 


were  the  members  of  that  high  court  of  justice  (§  500)  which 
had  sent  Charles  I  to  the  block.  Of  these,  ten  were  executed 
and  nineteen  imprisoned  for  life.  Most  of  the  other  regicide 
judges  were  either  already  out  of  the  country  or  managed  to 
escape  soon  after. 

Among  these,  William  Goffe,  Edward  Whalley,  and  Col.  John 
Dixwell  took  refuge  in  Connecticut,  where  they  remained  con¬ 
cealed  for  several  years.  Eventually  the  first  two  went  to  Hadley, 
Massachusetts,  where  they  lived  in  seclusion  in  the  house  of  a 
clergyman  until  their  death. 

The  bodies  of  Cromwell,  Ireton,  Bradshaw,  and  Pride  were 
dug  up  from  their  graves  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  hanged  in 
chains  at  Tyburn.1  They  were  then  buried  at  the  foot  of  the 
gallows  along  with  the  mouldering  remains  of  highway  robbers 
and  criminals  of  the  lowest  sort. 

524.  Religious  Persecution;  Covenanters;  Bunyan.  —  The  first 
Parliament  that  met  (1661)  commanded  the  common  hangman 
to  publicly  burn  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  (§  496)  ;  the 
Episcopal  form  of  worship  was  restored,  and  four  severe  laws 
were  passed  against  the  Nonconformists  or  Dissenters  who  had 
ejected  the  Episcopal  clergy  (§  496).'2  The  first  of  these  new 
laws  was  entitled  the  “Corporation  Act”  (1661).  It  ordered  all 
holders  of  municipal  offices  to  renounce  the  Covenant3  which  had 
been  put  in  force  in  1647,  and  to  take  the  sacrament  of  the 
Church  of  England.  Next,  the  fourth  Act  of  Uniformity  (1662) 
(§  433)  enforced  the  use  of  the  Episcopal  Prayer-Book  upon 
all  clergymen  and  congregations.  This  was  followed  by  the 

1  Tyburn,  near  the  northeast  entrance  to  Hyde  Park,  London.  It  was  for  several 
centuries  the  chief  place  for  the  public  execution  of  felons. 

2  The  chief  Nonconformists,  aside  from  the  Roman  Catholics,  were:  1.  The 
Presbyterians.  2.  The  Independents,  or  Congregationalists.  3.  The  Baptists.  4.  The 
Society  of  Friends,  or  Quakers.  Originally  the  name  “Nonconformist”  was  given 
to  those  who  refused  to  conform  to  the  worship  of  the  Church  of  England,  or 
Episcopacy,  and  endeavored  to  change  it  to  suit  their  views.  Later,  when  the 
Nonconformists  gave  up  that  attempt,  and  asked  only  for  permission  to  worship 
according  to  their  own  convictions,  they  received  the  milder  name  of  “  Dissenters.” 

3  Covenant :  the  oath  or  agreement  to  maintain  the  Presbyterian  faith  and 
worship'.  It  originated  in  Scotland.  See  §  490. 


ST.  PAUL'S  CATHEDRAL 


660-1685]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  265 


Conventicle  Act1  (1664),  which  forbade  all  religious  assemblies 
whatever,  except  such  as  worshipped  according  to  the  Established 
Church.  Lastly,  the  Five-Mile  Act  (1665)  forbade  all  dissenting 
ministers  to  teach  in  schools,  or  to  settle  within  five  miles  of  an 
incorporated  town. 

The  second  of  these  stringent  retaliatory  statutes,  the  Act  of 
Uniformity,  drove  two  thousand  Presbyterian  ministers  from  their 
parishes  in  a  single  day,2  and  reduced  them  to  the  direst  distress. 
The  able-bodied  among  them  might  indeed  pick  up  a  precarious 
livelihood  by  hard  labor,  but  the  old  and  the  weak  soon  found 
their  refuge  in  the  grave. 

Those  who  dared  to  resist  these  intolerant  and  inhuman  laws 
were  punished  with  fines,  imprisonment,  or  slavery.  The  Scottish 
Parliament — a  Parliament,  says  Bishop  Burnet,  “  mostly  drunk  ” 
—  abolished  Presbyterianism  and  restored  Episcopacy.  It  vied 
with  the  Cavalier  or  King’s  party  in  England  in  persecution  of 
the  Dissenters.3 

The  Covenanters  (§  490)  were  hunted  with  bugle  and  blood¬ 
hound.,  like  so  many  deer,  by  Claverhouse  and  his  men,  who 
hanged  and  drowned  without  mercy  those  who  gathered  secretly 
in  glens  and  caves  to  worship  God.  Even  when  nothing  certain 
was  known  against  those  who  were  seized,  there  was  no  trial.4 
The  father  of  a  family  would  be  dragged  from  his  cottage  by  the 
soldiers,  asked  if  he  would  take  the  test  of  conformity  to  the 
Church  of  England  and  to  Charles’ .  government ;  if  not,  then 
came  the  order,  “Make  ready  —  present  —  fire!” — and  there 
lay  the  corpse  of  the  rebel.  >■ 

Among  the  multitudes  who  suffered  in  England  for  religion’s 

1  Conventicle  Act :  from  conventicle,  a  religious  meeting  of  Dissenters.  See,  too, 
on  these  four  acts,  the  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page 
xix,  §20.  2  St.  Bartholomew’s  Day  (Aug.  24),  1662. 

3  The  Scottish  Parliament  granted  what  was  called  the  “  Indulgence  ”  to  Presbyte¬ 
rian  ministers  who  held  moderate  views.  The  extreme  Covenanters  regarded  these 
“  indulged  Presbyterians”  as  deserters  and  traitors  who  were  both  weak  and  wicked. 
For  this  reason  they  hated  them  worse  than  they  did  the  Episcopalians.  Burton’s 
Scotland,  VII,  457-468. 

4  See  the  poem  of  the  “  Maiden  Martyr  of  Scotland,”  in  Montgomery’s  Heroic 
Ballads,  Ginn  &  Company. 


266  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1660-1685 


sake  was  a  poor  day-laborer  named  John  Bunyan.  He  had 
served  against  the  King  in  the  civil  wars,  and  later  had  become 
converted  to  Puritanism,  and  turned  exhorter  and  itinerant 
preacher.  He  was  arrested  and  convicted  of  having  “  devilishly 
and  perniciously  abstained  from  coming  to  church.” 

The  judge  sentenced  him  to  Bedford  jail,  where  he  remained  a 
prisoner  for  twelve  years  (1660-1672).  It  was,  he  says,  a  squalid 
“  Denn.”  1  But  in  his  marvellous  dream  of  “  A  Pilgrimage  from 
this  World  to  the  Next”  (if  he  wrote  it  while  in  prison),  he  for¬ 
got  the  misery  of  his  surroundings.  Like  Milton  in  his  blindness, 
loneliness,  and  poverty,  he  looked  within  and  found  that  — 

“  The  mind  is  its  own  place,  and  in  itself 
Can  make  a  heaven  of  hell.”2 

525.  Seizure  of  a  Dutch  Colony  in  America  (1664). — While 

these  things  were  going  on  in  England,  a  disgraceful  event  took 
place  abroad.  The  Dutch  had  established  a  colony  in  America, 
and  built  a  town  on  Manhattan  Island  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Hudson  River,  which  they  called  New  Amsterdam. 

A  treaty  made  by  England  with  Holland  under  the  Common¬ 
wealth  had  recognized  the  claims  of  the  Dutch  in  the  new 
world. 

Charles,  howrever,  had  no  intention  of  keeping  faith  with  Hol¬ 
land  ;  and  though  the  two  nations  were  at  peace,  resolved  to 
seize  the  territory.  He  accordingly  granted  it  to  his  brother 
James,  Duke  of  York,  and  sent  out  a  secret  expedition  to  capture 
the  colony  in  his  behalf. 

One  day  an  English  fleet  suddenly  appeared  (1664)  in 
the  harbor  of  the  Dutch  towm,  and  demanded  its  immediate 
and  unconditional  surrender.  The  governor  was  unprepared  to 
make  any  defence,  and  the  place  w'as  given  up.  Thus,  with¬ 
out  so  much  as  the  firing  of  a  gun,  New  Amsterdam  got  the 
name  of  New  York  in  honor  of  the  man  who,  with  his  royal 

1  “  As  I  walk'd  through  the  wilderness  of  this  world,  I  lighted  on  a  certain  place 
where  there  was  a  Denn,  and  I  laid  me  down  in  that  place  to  sleep  :  and  as  I  slept  I 
dreamed  a  dream.” —  The  Pilgrim's  Progress ,  edition  of  1678. 

2  Paradise  Lost,  Book  I,  253. 


660-1685]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  267 


brother,  had  with  characteristic  treachery  planned  and  per¬ 
petrated  the  robbery. 

526.  The  Plague  and  the  Fire  (1665,  1666).  — The  next  year 
a  terrible  outbreak  of  the  plague  occurred  in  London  (1665), 
which  spread  throughout  the  kingdom.  All  who  could  fled  from 
the  city.  Hundreds  of  houses  were  left  vacant,  while  on  hundreds 
more  a  cross  marked  on  the  doors  in  red  chalk,  with  the  words 
“  Lord  have  mercy  on  us,”  written  underneath,  told  where  the 
work  of  death  was  going  on.1 

This  pestilence  swept  off  over  a  hundred  thousand  victims  within 
six  months.  Among  the  few  brave  men  who  voluntarily  remained 
in  the  stricken  city  were  the  Puritan  ministers,  who  stayed  to 
comfort  and  console  the  sick  and  dying.  After  the  plague  was 
over,  they  received  their  reward  in  the  enforcement  of  those  acts 
of  persecution  which  drove  them  homeless  and  helpless  from  their 
parishes  and  friends  (§  524). 

The  dead-cart  had  hardly  ceased  to  go  its  rounds,  when  a  fire 
(1666)  broke  out,  of  which  Evelyn,  a  courtier  who  witnessed  it, 
wrote  that  it  “  was  not  to  be  outdone  until  the  final  conflagra¬ 
tion.”  2  By  it  the  city  of  London  proper  was  reduced  to  ruins, 
little  more  being  left  than  a  fringe  of  houses  on  the  northeast.3 

The  members  of  the  Cabal  (§  522)  gloated  over  the  destruc¬ 
tion,  believing  that  now  London  was  destroyed,  the  King,  with 
the  aid  .of  his  army,  might  easily  crush  out  political  liberty. 
But  selfish  as  Charles  and  his  brother  James  unquestionably 
were,  they  were  better  than  the  Cabal ;  for  both  worked  hero¬ 
ically  to  stop  the  flames,  and  gave  liberally  to  feed  and  shelter 
the  multitudes  who  had  lost  everything. 

Great  as  the  calamity  was,  yet  from  a  sanitary  point  of  view  it 

1  Pepys  writes  in  his  Diary,  describing  the  beginning  of  the  plague  :  “  The  7th  of 
June,  1665,  was  the  hottest  day  I  ever  felt  in  my  life.  This  day,  much  against  my 
will,  1  did  in  Drury  Lane  see  two  or  three  houses  with  a  red  cross  upon  the  door, 
and  1  Lord  have  mercy  upon  us  ’  writ  there,  which  was  a  sad  sight.” —  Pepys’  Diary , 
1660-1669.  Defoe  wrote  a  journal  of  the  plague  in  1 722,  based,  probably,  on  the 
reports  of  eye-witnesses.  It  gives  a  vivid  and  truthful  account  of  its  horrors. 

2  Evelyn’s  Diary,  1641-1705  ;  also  compare  Dryden’s  poem,  Annus  Mirabilis. 

3  See  Map  in  Loftie’s  London,  Vol.  I.  See  also  §  64,  note  2. 


268  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1660-1685 


did  immense  good.  Nothing  short  of  fire  could  have  effectually 
cleansed  the  London  of  that  day,  and  so  put  a  stop  to  the  period¬ 
ical  ravages  of  the  plague.  By  sweeping  away  miles  of  narrow 
streets  crowded  with  miserable  buildings  black  with  the  encrusted 
filth  of  ages,  the  conflagration  in  the  end  proved  friendly  to 
health  and  life. 

A  monument  near  London  Bridge  still  marks  the  spot  where 
the  flames  first  burst  out.  For  many  years  it  bore  an  inscription 
affirming  that  the  Catholics  kindled  them  in  order  to  be  revenged 
on  their  persecutors.  The  poet  Pope,  at  a  later  period,  exposed 
the  falsehood  in  the  lines  :  — 

“  Where  London’s  column  pointing  towards  the  skies 
Like  a  tall  bully  lifts  its  head  and  lies.”  1 

Sir  Christopher  Wren,  the  most  famous  architect  of  the 
period,  rebuilt  the  city.  The  greater  part  of  it  had  been  of 
wood,  but  it  rose  from  the  ashes  brick  and  stone.  One  irrepa¬ 
rable  loss  was  the  old  Gothic  church  of  St.  Paul.  Wren  erected 
the  present  cathedral  on  the  foundations  of  the  ancient  structure. 
He  lies  buried  under  the  grand  dome  of  his  own  grandest  work. 
On  a  tablet  near  the  tomb  of  the  great  master-builder  one  reads 
the  inscription  in  Latin,  “  Reader,  if  you  seek  his  monument, 
look  around.” 2 

527.  Invasion  by  the  Dutch  (1667). — The  new  city  had  not 
risen  from  the  ruins  of  the  old,  when  a  third  calamity  overtook 
it.  Charles  was  at  war  with  France  and  Holland.  The  contest 
with  the  latter  nation  grew  out  of  the  rivalry  of  the  two  countries 
in  their  efforts  to  get  the  exclusive  possession  of  foreign  trade 
(§  5 1 1).  Parliament  granted  the  King  large  sums  of  money  to 
build  and  equip  a  navy,  but  the  pleasure-loving  monarch  wasted 
it  in  dissipation.  The  few  ships  he  had  were  rotten  old  hulks, 
but  half  provisioned,  with  crews  ready  to  mutiny  because  they 
could  not  get  their  pay. 

A  Dutch  fleet  sailed  up  the  Thames.  It  was  manned  in  part 
by  English  sailors  wffio  had  deserted  in  disgust,  because  when 

1  Moral  Essays,  Epistle  iii.  2  “  Lector,  si  monumentum  requiris,  circumspice.” 


1660-1685]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  269 


they  asked  for  cash  to  support  their  families  they  got  only  worth¬ 
less  government  tickets.  There  was  no  force  to  oppose  them. 
They  burnt  some  half-built  men-of-war,  threatened  to  blockade 
London,  and  made  their  own  terms  of  peace. 

528.  Secret  Treaty  of  Dover  (1670)  ;  the  King  robs  the 
Exchequer  (1672).  — But  another  and  still  deeper  disgrace  was 
at  hand.  The  chief  ambition  of  Charles  was  to  rule  without  a 
Parliament ;  without  supplies  of  money  he  found  this  impossible. 
A  way  to  accomplish  the  desired  end  now  presented  itself. 

Louis  XIV  of  France,  then  the  most  powerful  monarch  in 
Europe,  wished  to  conquer  Holland,  with  the  double  object  of 
extending  his  own  kingdom  and  the  power  of  Catholicism.  He 
saw  in  Charles  the  tool  he  wanted  to  gain  this  end.  By  the 
secret  Treaty  of  Dover  (1670),  Louis  bribed  the  English  King 
with  a  gift  of  ^300,000  to  help  him  carry  out  his  scheme. 
Thus,  without  the  knowledge  of  Parliament,  Charles  deliberately 
sold  himself  to  the  French  sovereign,  who  was  plotting  to  destroy 
the  political  liberty  and  Protestant  faith  of  Holland. 

In  addition  to  the  above  sum,  it  was  furthermore  agreed  that 
Louis  should  pay  Charles  a  pension  of  ^200,000  a  year  from  the 
date  when  the  latter  should  openly  avow  himself  a  Catholic. 
Later  (1678),  Charles  made  a  second  secret  treaty  with  Louis  XIV 
to  the  same  effect.1 

True  to  his  infamous  contract,  Charles  provoked  a  new  war  with 
the  Dutch,  but  found  that  he  needed  more  money  to  prosecute  it 
successfully.  Not  knowing  where  to  borrow,  he  determined  to 
steal  it.  Various  prominent  London  merchants  and  bankers  had 
lent  to  the  Government  large  sums  on  promise  of  repayment  from 
the  taxes. 

A  part  of  the  revenue  amounting  to  about  ^1,300,000,  a  sum 
equal  to  at  least  $10,000,000  now,  had  been  deposited  in  the 
exchequer,  or  government  treasury,  to  meet  the  obligation.  The 
King  seized  this  money,2  partly  for  his  needs,  but  chiefly  for  his 

1  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xix,  §  21. 

2  “  ‘  Rob  me  the  exchequer,  Hal,’  said  the  King  to  his  favorite  minister  ;  then  1  all 
went  merry  as  a  marriage  bell.’  ” —  Evelyn’s  Diary,  10  Oct.,  1671. 


27 O  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1660-1685 


vices.  This  act  of  treachery  caused  a  financial  panic  which  shook 
London  to  its  foundations  and  ruined  great  numbers  of  people. 

529.  More  Money  Schemes ;  Declaration  of  Indulgence ;  Test 
Act  (1673).  —  By  declaring  war  against  Holland,  Charles  had  now 
fulfilled  the  first  part  of  his  secret  treaty  with  Louis  (§  528),  but 
he  was  afraid  to  undertake  the  second  part  and  openly  declare 
himself  a  convert  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  He,  however,  did  the 
next  thing  to  it,  by  issuing  a  cautiously  worded  Declaration  of 
Indulgence  (1673)  to  all  religions,  under  cover  of  which  he 
intended  to  show  especial  favor  to  the  Catholics. 

To  offset  this  royal  declaration,  Parliament  at  once  passed  the 
Test  Act 1  (1673),  requiring  every  government  officer  to  acknowl¬ 
edge  himself  a  Protestant  (§  618).  Charles  became  alarmed  at 
this  decided  stand,  and  now  tried  to  conciliate  Parliament, 
and  coax  from  it  another  grant  of  money  by  marrying  his  niece, 
the  Princess  Mary,  to  William  of  Orange,  President  of  the  Dutch 
republic,  and  head  of  the  Protestant  party  on  the  continent. 

530.  The  So-Called  “Popish  Plot”;  the  Exclusion  Bill,  and 
Disabling  Act  (1678-1679). — While  the  King  was  playing  this 
double  part,  a  scoundrel,  named  Titus  Oates,  whose  hideous  face 
was  but  the  counterpart  of  a  still  more  hideous  character,  pretended 
that  he  had  discovered  a  terrible  plot.  He  declared  that  the 
Catholics  had  formed  a  conspiracy  to  burn  London,  massacre  the 
inhabitants,  kill  the  King,  and  restore  the  religion  of  Rome. 

The  news  of  this  alleged  discovery  caused  an  excitement  which 
soon  grew  into  a  sort  of  popular  madness.  The  memory  of  the 
great  fire  (§  526)  was  still  fresh  in  people’s  minds.  In  their 
imagination  they  now  saw  those  scenes  of  horror  repeated,  with 
wholesale  murder  added.  Great  numbers  of  innocent  persons 
were  thrown  into  prison,  and  many  executed. 

As  time  went  on,  the  terror  seemed  to  increase.  With  its  in¬ 
crease,  Oates  grew  bolder  in  his  accusations.  Chief-Justice  Scroggs 
showed  himself  an  eager  abettor  of  the  miserable  wretch  who  swore 
away  men’s  lives  for  the  sake  of  the  notoriety  it  gave  him.  In 
the  extravagance  of  his  presumption  Oates  even  dared  to  accuse 

1  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xix,  §  21. 


1660-1685]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPEET  27 1 


the  Queen  of  an  attempt  to  poison  Charles.  The  craze,  however, 
had  at  last  begun  to  abate  somewhat,  and  no  action  was  taken. 

An  attempt  was  now  made  (1679)  to  pass  a  law  called  the 
“  Exclusion  Bill,”  debarring  Charles’  brother  James,  the  Catholic 
Duke  of  York,  from  succeeding  to  the  crown ; '  but  though  voted 
by  the  Commons,  if  was  defeated  by  the  Lords.  Meanwhile  a 
second  measure,  called  the  “  Disabling  Act,”  had  received  the 
sanction  of  both  Houses  (1678).  It  declared  Catholics  incapable 
of  sitting  in  Parliament ;  and  from  this  date  they  remained  shut  out 
from  all  legislative  power  and  from  all  civil  and  corporate  offices 
for  a  period  of  over  a  century  and  a  half  (§  618). 

531.  Political  Parties;  the  King  revokes  City  Charters.  —  It 
was  about  this  time  that  the  names  “Whig”  and  “Tory”  (later, 
Liberal  and  Conservative)  began  to  be  given  to  two  political  par¬ 
ties,  which  soon  became  very  powerful,  and  which  have  ever  since 
divided  the  government  of  the  country  between  them  (§§  626, 647). 

The  term  “  Whig  ”  was  originally  given  by  way  of  reproach  to 
the  Scotch  Puritans,  or  Covenanters  (§§  490,  524),  who  refused  to 
accept  the  Episcopacy  which  Charles  I  endeavored  to  impose 
upon  them  (§  490).  “Tory,”  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  nickname 
which  appears  to  have  first  been  applied  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
outlaws  of  Ireland,  who  were  regarded  as  both  robbers  and  rebels. 

This  latter  name  was  now  given  to  those  who  supported  the 
claims  of  the  King’s  brother  James,  the  Roman  Catholic  Duke  of 
York,  as  successor  to  the  throne  ;  while  that  of  Whig  (or  “  Country 
Party  ”)  was  borne  by  those  who  were  endeavoring  to  exclude  him, 
and  secure  a  Protestant  successor.1 


1  Politically,  the  Whigs  and  Tories  may  perhaps  be  considered  as  the  successors 
of  the  Roundheads  and  Cavaliers  of  the  civil  war,  the  former  seeking  to  limit  the 
power  of  the  Crown,  the  latter  to  extend  it.  At  the  Restoration  (1660),  the  Cavaliers 
were  all-powerful;  but  at  the  time  of  the  dispute  on  the  Exclusion  Bill  (1679),  the 
Roundhead,  or  People’s,  party  had  revived.  On  account  of  their  petitioning  the  King 
to  summon  a  new  Parliament,  by  means  of  which  they  hoped  to  carry  the  bill  shut¬ 
ting  out  the  Duke  of  York  from  the  throne,  they  were  called  “  Petitioners,”  and  later, 
“  Whigs  ” ;  while  those  who  expressed  their  abhorrence  of  their  efforts  were  called 
“  Abhorrers,”  and  afterward,  “  Tories.”  The  more  radical  Whigs  came  to  be  known 
as  the  “Country  Party,”  and  at  least  one  of  their  most  prominent  leaders  (Algernon 
Sidney)  was  in  favor  of  restoring  the  republican  form  of  government  in  England. 


272  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1660-1685 


The  excitement  over  this  exclusion  question  threatened  at  one 
period  to  bring  on  another  civil  war.  In  his  fury  against  the 
Whigs,  Charles  revoked  the  charters  of  London  and  many  other 
cities,  which  were  regranted  only  on  terms  agreeable  to  the 
Tories.  An  actual  outbreak  against  the  Government  would  prob¬ 
ably  have  occurred  had  it  not  been  for  the  discovery  of  a  new 
conspiracy,  which  resulted  in  a  reaction  favorable  to  the  Crown. 

532.  The  Rye-House  Plot  (1683). — This  conspiracy,  known 
as  the  “  Rye-House  Plot,”  had  for  its  object  the  murder  of  Charles 
and  his  brother  James  at  a  place  called  the  Rye  House  in  Hert¬ 
fordshire,  not  far  from  London.  It  was  concocted  by  a  number 
of  violent  Whigs,  who,  in  their  disappointment  respecting  the 
passage  of  the  Exclusion  Bill  (§  530),  took  this  method  of 
securing  their  ends. 

It  is  said  that  they  intended  placing  on  the  throne  James, 
Duke- of  Monmouth,  a  natural  son  of  Charles,  who  was  popularly 
known  as  the  “  Protestant  Duke.”  Algernon  Sidney,  Lord  Rus¬ 
sell,  and  the  Earl  of  Essex,  who  were  prominent  advocates  of  the 
Exclusion  Bill  (§  530),  were  arrested  for  participating  in  the  plot. 
Essex  committed  suicide  in  the  Tower ;  Sidney  and  Russell  were 
tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  death  on  insufficient  evidence. 

Both  were  unquestionably  innocent.  They  died  martyrs  to  the 
cause  of  liberty,  - —  Russell,  with  the  fortitude  of  a  Christian ; 
Sidney,  with  the  calmness  of  a  philosopher.  The  Duke  of  Mon¬ 
mouth,  who  was  supposed  to  be  implicated  in  the  plot,  was 
banished  to  Holland  (§  538). 

533.  The  Royal  Society  (1662).  —  Early  in  this  reign  the 
Royal  Society,  for  the  discussion  of  scientific  questions,  was 
organized.  In  an  age  when  thousands  of  well-informed  people 
still  cherished  a  lingering  belief  that  lead  might  be  changed  into 
gold  ;  that  some  medicine  might  be  discovered  which  would  cure 
every  disease,  and  prevent  old  age,  that  worst  disease  of  all ; 
when  every  cross-grained  old  woman  was  suspected  of  witchcraft, 
and  was  liable  to  be  tortured  and  hanged  on  that  suspicion ;  the 
formation  of  an  association  to  study  physical  facts  was  most 
significant. 


1660-1685!  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  273 

It  showed  that  the  time  had  come  when,  instead  of  guessing 
what  might  be,  men  were  at  last  beginning  to  resolve  to  know 
what  actually  is.  Under  the  encouragement  given  by  this  society, 
an  English  mathematician  and  philosopher  published  a  work 
(1687)  which  demonstrated  the  unity  of  the  universe,  by  proving 
that  the  same  law  governs  the  falling  of  an  apple  and  th6 
movements  of  the  planets  in  their  orbits. 

It  was  with  reference  to  that  wonderful  discovery  of  the  all- 
pervading  power  of  gravitation,  which  shapes  and  holds  in  its 
control  the  drop  of  dew  before  our  eyes,  and  the  farthest  star 
shining  in  the  heavens,  that  the  poet  Pope  suggested  the  epitaph 
which  should  be  graven  on  the  tomb  of  the  great  thinker  in 
W estminster  Abbey  :  — 

“  Nature  and  Nature’s  laws  lay  hid  in  night ; 

God  said,  ‘  Let  Newton  be!  ’  and  all  was  light.” 

534.  Chief  Political  Reforms  ;  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act ;  Aboli¬ 
tion  of  Feudal  Dues.  — As  the  age  did  not  stand  still  with  respect 
to  progress  in  knowledge,  so  it  was  not  wholly  unsuccessful  in 
attempts  at  political  reform.  The  chief  measures  were,  first, 
the  Habeas  Corpus  Act1  (1679),  which  provided  that  no  subject 
should  be  detained  in  prison  except  by  due  process  of  law,  thus 
putting  an  end  to  the  arbitrary  confinement  of  men  for  months, 
and  years  even,  without  conviction  of  guilt  or  even  form  of  trial. 

An  earlier  reform  was  the  abolition  (1660)  of  the  King’s  right 
to  feudal  dues  and  service,  by  which  he  was  accustomed  to  extort 
as  much  as  possible  from  his  subjects2  (§  200),  and  the  substitu¬ 
tion  of  a  fixed  yearly  allowance,  raised  by  tax,  of  ^i,2oo,ooo.3 
This  change  may  be  considered  to  have  practically  abolished 

1  Habeas  Corpus  ad  subjiciendum  (1679)  (that  you  have  the  body  to  answer)  : 
this  writ  is  addressed  by  the  judge  to  him  who  detains  another  in  custody,  com¬ 
manding  him  to  bring  him  into  court  and  show  why  he  is  restrained  of  his  liberty. 
The  right  of  Habeas  Corpus  was  contained  in  germ  in  the  Great  Charter,  §  313  (3) ; 
and  see  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xix,  §  21. 

2  See  Blackstone’s  Commentaries,  II,  76. 

8  This  tax  should  have  been  levied  on  the  landed  proprietors  who  had  been 
subject  to  the  feudal  dues,  but  they  evaded  it,  and  by  getting  it  assessed  as  an  excise 
duty  on  beer  and  spirits,  they  compelled  the  body  of  the  people  to  bear  the  burden 
for  them. 


274  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1660-1685 


the  feudal  system  in  England,  so  far  as  the  Crown  is  concerned, 
though  the  law  still  retains  many  remnants  of  it  with  respect  to 
the  relation  of  landlord  and  tenant.1 

535.  Death  of  Charles.  —  The  reign  came  suddenly  to  an  end 
(1685).  Evelyn  tells  us  in  his  Diary  that  he  was  present  at 
the  royal  court  at  the  palace  of  Whitehall  on  Sunday  morning, 
the  last  of  January  of  that  year.  There  he  saw  the  King  sitting 
in  the  grand  banqueting-room,  chatting  gayly  with  three  famous 
court  beauties,  while  a  crowd  of  richly  dressed  nobles  were  gath¬ 
ered  around  a  gambling-table  heaped  with  gold.  Six  days  after, 
as  he  expresses  it,  all  was  “in  the  dust.” 

Charles  died  a  Roman  Catholic,  his  brother  James  (§  530) 
having  smuggled  a  priest  into  his  chamber  in  time  to  hear  his 
confession  and  grant  him  absolution.  Certainly  few  English  rulers 
have  stood  in  greater  need  of  both. 

536.  Summary.  — The  chief  events  of  the  period  were  the 
persecution  of  the  Puritans,  the  Plague  and  Fire  of  London,  the 
so-called  “  Popish  Plot,”  the  Rye-House  Plot,  and  the  Dutch 
Wars.  Aside  from  these,  the  reign  presents  two  leading  points  : 
1.  The  policy  of  the  King  ;  2.  that  of  the  nation. 

Charles,  as  we  have  seen,  lived  solely  to  gratify  his  inordinate 
love  of  pleasure.  For  that,  he  wasted  the  revenue,  robbed  the 
exchequer,  and  cheated  the  navy ;  for  that,  he  secretly  sold  him¬ 
self  to  France,  made  war  on  Holland,  and  shamefully  deceived 
both  Parliament  and  people. 

In  so  far,  then,  as  Charles  had  an  object,  it  began  and  ended 
with  himself.  Therein,  he  stood  lower  than  his  father,  who  at 
least  conscientiously  believed  in  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings  (§481) 
and  their  accountability  to  the  Almighty. 

The  policy  of  the  nation,  on  the  other  hand,  was  divided. 
The  Whigs  were  determined  to  limit  the  power  of  the  Crown, 
and  secure  at  all  hazards  a  Protestant  successor.  The  Tories 
were  equally  resolved  to  check  the  growing  power  of  the  people, 
and  preserve  the  hereditary  order  of  succession  without  any 
immediate  regard  to  the  religious  question  (§  531). 

1  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xviii,  §  20. 


1660-1685]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  275 


Beneath  these  issues  both  parties  had  a  common  object,  which 
was  to  maintain  the  National  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  monarchi¬ 
cal  system  of  government,  preferring  rather  to  cherish  patriotism 
through  loyalty  to  a  personal  sovereign  than  patriotism  alone 
through  devotion  to  a  democratic  republic. 

JAMES  II  —  1685-1689 

537.  Accession  of  James  II ;  his  Two  Objects ;  Oates  gets 
his  Deserts.  —  James,  Duke  of  York,  brother  of  the  late  king, 
now  came  to  the  throne.  His  first  great  ambition  was  to  rule 
independently  of  Parliament ;  in  other  words,  to  have  his 
own .  way  in  everything ;  his  second,  which  was,  if  possible,  still 
nearer  his  heart,  was  to  restore  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  in 
England  (§§414,  434,  435)- 

He  began  that  restoration  at  once ;  and  on  the  Easter  Sunday 
preceding  his  coronation,  “  the  worship  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
was  once  more,  after  an  interval  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
years,  performed  at  Westminster  with  royal  splendor.”  1 

Not  long  afterward  James  brought  the  .miscreant  Oates  to 
trial  for  the  perjuries  he  had  committed  in  connection  with  the 
so-called  “Popish  Plot”  (§  530).  He  was  found  guilty,  and  the 
community  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  him  publicly  whipped 
through  London  with  such  terrible  severity  that  “  the  blood  ran 
in  rivulets,”  and  a  few  more  strokes  of  the  lash  would  have  ended 
his  worthless  life  (1685). 

538.  Monmouth’s  Rebellion  ;  Sedgemoor  (1685).  — At  the  time 
of  the  discovery  of  the  Rye-House  Plot  (§  532),  a  number  of 
Whigs  who  were  implicated  in  the  conspiracy  fled  to  Holland, 
where  the  Duke  of  Monmouth  had  gone  when  banished.  Four 
months  after  the  accession  of  James,  the  duke,  aided  by  these 
refugees  and  by  a  small  force  which  he  had  gathered  in  the  Low 
Countries,  resolved  to  invade  England  and  demand  the  crown. 
He  believed  that  a  large  part  of  the  nation  would  look  upon  him 
as  representing  the  cause  of  Protestantism,  and  would  therefore 


1  Macaulay’s  England. 


276  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1685-1689 


rally  to  his  support.  He  landed  at  Lyme  on  the  coast  of  Dorset¬ 
shire  (1685),  and  there  issued  an  absurd  proclamation  declaring 
James  to  be  a  usurper,  tyrant,  and  murderer,  who  had  set  the 
great  fire  of  London,  cut  the  throat  of  Essex  (§  532),  and  poisoned 
Charles  II  ! 

At  Taunton,  in  Somersetshire,  a  procession  of  welcome  headed 
by  a  lady  carrying  a  Bible  met  the  duke,  and  presented  him  with 
the  book  in  behalf  of  the  Protestant  faith.  He  received  it,  say¬ 
ing,  “  I  come  to  defend  the  truths  contained  in  this  volume,  and 
to  seal  them,  if  it  must  be  so,  with  my  blood.”  Shortly  afterward 
he  proclaimed  himself  sovereign  of  Great  Britain.  He  was  popu¬ 
larly  known  as  “  King  Monmouth.”  Many  of  the  country  people 
now  joined  him,  but  the  Whig  nobles  (§  531),  on  whose  help 
he  had  counted,  stood  aloof,  alienated  doubtless  by  the  ridiculous 
charges  he  had  made  against  James. 

At  the  battle  of  Sedgemoor,  in  Somersetshire  (1685),  “King 
Monmouth,”  with  his  hastily  gathered  forces,  was  utterly  routed. 
He  himself  was  soon  afterward  captured  hiding  in  a  ditch.  He 
desired  to  be  taken  to  the  King.  His  request  was  granted.  When 
he  entered  his  uncle’s  presence,  he  threw  himself  down  and  crawled 
to  his  feet,  weeping  and  begging  piteously  for  life  —  only  life  — 
on  any  terms,  however  hard. 

He  denied  that  he  had  issued  the  lying  proclamation  published 
at  Lyme  ;  he  denied  that  he  had  sought  the  crown  of  his  own 
free  will ;  finally,  in  an  agony  of  supplication,  he  hinted  that  he 
would  even  renounce  Protestantism  if  thereby  he  might  escape 
death.  James  told  him  that  he  should  have  the  service  of  a 
Catholic  priest,  but  would  promise  nothing  more.  Monmouth 
grovelled  and  pleaded,  but  the  King’s  heart  was  like  marble,  and 
he  turned  away  in  silence.  Then  the  duke,  seeing  that  all  his 
efforts  were  vain,  rose  to  his  feet  and  regained  his  manhood. 

He  was  forthwith  sent  to  the  Tower,  and  shortly  afterward  to 
execution.  His  headless  body  was  buried  under  the  communion¬ 
table  of  that  little  chapel  of  St.  Peter  within  the  Tower  grounds, 
where  the  remains  of  Anne  Boleyn,  Lady  Jane  Grey,  Sir  Thomas 
More,  and  many  other  royal  victims,  are  gathered.  No  sadder 


685-16S9]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  277 


spot  exists  on  earth,  “since  there  death  is  associated  with  what¬ 
ever  is  darkest  in  human  nature  and  human  destiny.”  1 

After  Monmouth’s  death  there  were  no  further  attempts  at 
insurrection,  and  the  struggle  at  Sedgemoor  remains  the  last 
encounter  worthy  of  the  name  of  battle  fought  on  English  soil. 

539.  The  Bloody  Assizes  (1685).  — The  defeat  of  the  insur¬ 
gents  who  had  rallied  under  Monmouth’s  flag  was  followed  by  a 
series  of  trials  known,  from  their  results,  as  the  “  Bloody  Assizes  ”  2 
(1685).  They  were  conducted  by  Judge  Jeffreys,  assisted  by  a 
band  of  soldiers  under  Colonel  Kirke,  ironically  called,  from  their 
ferocity,  “  Kirke’s  Lambs.”  But  of  the  two,  Jeffreys  was  the  more 
to  be  dreaded.  He  was  by  nature  cruel,  and  enjoyed  the  spec¬ 
tacle  of  mental  as  well  as  bodily  anguish.  As  he  himself  said,  he 
delighted  to  give  those  who  had  the  misfortune  to  appear  before 
him  “  a  lick  with  the  rough  side  of  his  tongue,”  preparatory  to 
roaring  out  the  sentence  of  torture  or  death,  in  which  he  delighted 
still  more. 

All  who  were  in  the  remotest  way  implicated  in  the  late  rising 
were  now  hunted  down  and  brought  to  a  trial  which  was  but  a 
mockery  of  justice.  No  one  was  permitted  to  defend  himself. 
In  fact,  defence  would  have  been  useless  against  the  blind  fury 
of  such  a  judge.  The  threshold  of  the  court  was  to  most  that 
crossed  it  the  threshold  of  the  grave. 

A  gentleman  present  at  one  of  these  scenes  of  slaughter,  touched 
with  pity  at  the  condition  of  a  trembling  old  man  called  up  for 
sentence,  ventured  to  put  in  a  word  in  his  behalf.  “  My  Lord,” 
said  he  to  Jeffreys,  “this  poor  creature  is  dependent  on  the 
parish.”  “  Don’t  trouble  yourself,”  cried  the  judge ;  “  I  will 
soon  ease  the  parish  of  the  burden,”  and  ordered  the  officers  to 
execute  him  at  once. 

Those  who  escaped  death  were  often  still  more  to  be  pitied. 
A  young  man  was  sentenced  to  be  imprisoned  for  seven  years, 
and  to  be  whipped  once  a  year  through  every  market  town  in  the 

1  Macaulay’s  England. 

2  Assizes  (from  the  French  asseoir,  to  sit  or  set)  :  sessions  of  a  court ;  also  used 
in  the  singular,  of  a  decree  or  law. 


278  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [16S5-16S9 

county.  In  his  despair,  he  petitioned  the  King  to  grant  him  the 
favor  of  being  hanged.  The  petition  was  refused,  but  a  partial 
remission  of  the  punishment  was  at  length  gained  by  bribing  the 
court;  for  Jeffreys,  though  his  heart  was  shut  against  mercy, 
always  had  his  pockets  open  for  gain. 

Alice  Lisle,  an  aged  woman,  who,  out  of  pity,  had  concealed 
two  men  flying  from  the  King’s  vengeance,  was  condemned  to 
be  burned  alive ;  and  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  the 
clergy  of  Winchester  Cathedral  succeeded  in  getting  the  sentence 
commuted  to  beheading. 

As  the  work  went  on,  the  spirits  of  Jeffreys  rose  higher  and 
higher.  He  laughed,  shouted,  joked,  and  swore  like  a  drunken 
man.  When  the  court  had  finished  its  sittings,  more  than  a 
thousand  persons  had  been  brutally  scourged,  sold  as  slaves, 
hanged,  or  beheaded. 

The  guide-posts  of  the  highways  were  converted  into  gibbets, 
from  which  blackened  corpses  swung  in  chains,  and  from  every 
church-tower  in  Somersetshire  ghastly  heads  looked  down  on 
those  who  gathered  there  to  worship  God ;  in  fact,  so  many 
bodies  were  exposed  that  the  whole  air  was  “  tainted  with 
corruption  and  death.” 

Not  satisfied  with  vengeance  alone,  Jeffreys  and  his  friends 
made  these  trials  a  means  of  speculation.  Batches  of  rebels  were 
given  as  presents  to  courtiers,  who  sold  them  to  be  worked  and 
flogged  to  death  on  West  India  plantations;  and  the  Queen’s 
maids  of  honor  extorted  large  sums  of  money  for  the  pardon 
of  a  number  of  country  school-girls  who  had  been  convicted  of 
presenting  Monmouth  with  a  royal  flag  at  Taunton. 

On  the  return  of  Jeffreys  to  London  after  this  carnival  of 
blood,  his  father  was  so  horrified  at  his  cruelty  that  he  forbade 
him  to  enter  his  house.  James,  on  the  contrary,  testified  his 
approval  by  making  Jeffreys  Lord  Chancellor  of  the  realm,  at 
the  same  time  mildly  censuring  him  for  not  having  shown  greater 
severity  ! 

The  new  Lord  Chancellor  testified  his  gratitude  to  his  royal 
master  by  procuring  the  murder,  by  means  of  a  packed  jury,  of 


1685-1689]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  279 


Alderman  Cornish,  a  prominent  London  Whig  (§  531),  who  was 
especially  hated  by  the  King  on  account  of  his  support  of  that 
Exclusion  Bill  (§  530)  which  was  intended  to  shut  James  out 
from  the  throne.  On  the  same  day  on  which  Cornish  was  exe¬ 
cuted,  Jeffreys  also  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  Elizabeth 
Gaunt  was  burned  alive  at  Tyburn,  London,  for  having  assisted 
one  of  the  Rye-House  conspirators,  who  had  fought  for  Monmouth 
at  Sedgemoor,  to  escape. 

540.  The  King  makes  Further  Attempts  to  reestablish  Catholi¬ 
cism  ;  Second  Declaration  of  Indulgence  (1687);  Oxford.  —  An  event 
occurred  about  this  time  which  encouraged  James  to  make  a  more 
decided  attempt  to  restore  Catholicism.  Henry  IV  of  France 
granted  the  Protestants  of  his  kingdom  liberty  of  worship,  by 
the  Edict  of  Nantes  (1598).  Louis  XIV  deliberately  revoked  it 
(1685).  By  that  short-sighted  act  the  Huguenots,  or  French 
Protestants,  were  exposed  to  cruel  persecution,  and  thousands 
of  them  fled  to  England  and  America. 

James  now  resolved  to  profit  by  the  example  set  him  by 
Louis,  and  if  not  like  the  French  monarch  to  drive  the  Protes¬ 
tants  out  of  Great  Britain,  at  least  to  restore  the  country  to  its 
allegiance  to  Rome.  He  began  by  suspending  the  Test  Act 
(§  529)  and  putting  Catholics  into  important  offices  in  both 
Church  and  State.1  He  furthermore  established  an  army  of 
thirteen  thousand  men  on  Hounslow  Heath,  just  outside  London 
(1686),  to  hold  the  city  in  subjection  in  case  there  should  be  a 
disposition  to  rebel. 

He  next  recalled  the  Protestant  Duke  of  Ormonde,  governor  of 
Ireland,  and  in  his  place  as  lord  deputy  sent  Talbot,  Earl  of 
Tyrconnel,  a  Catholic  of  notoriously  bad  character.  Tyrconnel 
had  orders  to  recruit  an  Irish  Roman  Catholic  army  to  aid  the 
King  in  carrying  out  his  designs  (1687).  He  raised  some  soldiers, 
but  he  also  raised  that  famous  song  of  “  Lilli  Burlero,”  by  which, 

1  The  Dispensing  Power  and  the  Suspending  Power,  by  which  the  King  claimed 
the  right  of  preventing  the  enforcement  of  such  laws  as  he  deemed  contrary  to  public 
good.  A  packed  bench  of  judges  sustained  the  King  in  this  position,  but  the  power 
so  to  act  was  finally  abolished  by  the  Bill  of  Rights  (1689).  See  §  549,  and  top  of 
page  xxxii,  Article  XII. 


280  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1685-1689 


as  its  author  boasted,  James  was  eventually  “sung  out  of  his 
kingdom.”  1 

Having  got  the  courts  completely  under  his  control  through  the 
appointment  of  judges  in  sympathy  with  Jeffreys  and  with  him¬ 
self,  the  King  issued  a  Declaration  of  Indulgence  similar  to 
that  which  his  brother  Charles  II  had  issued  (§  5 2 9). 2  It  sus¬ 
pended  all  penal  laws  against  both  Roman  Catholics  on  the  one 
hand,  and  Protestant  Dissenters  on  the  other.  The  latter,  how¬ 
ever,  suspecting  that  this  apparently  liberal  measure  was  simply  a 
trick  to  establish  Catholicism,  refused  to  avail  themselves  of  it, 
and  denounced  it  as  an  open  violation  of  the  constitution. 

James  next  proceeded,  by  means  of  the  tyrannical  High  Com¬ 
mission  Court,  which  he  had  revived  (§§  433,  491),  to  bring  the 
chief  college  at  Oxford  under  Catholic  control.  The  President  of 
Magdalen  College  having  died,  the  Fellows  were  considering  the 
choice  of  a  successor.  The  King  ordered  them  to  elect  a  Catholic, 
and  named  at  first  a  man  of  ill  repute.  The  Fellows  refused  to 
obey,  and  elected  a  Protestant.  James  ejected  the  new  President, 
and  drove  out  the  Fellows,  leaving  them  to  depend  on  the  charity 
of  the  neighboring  country  gentlemen  for  their  support. 

But  the  King,  in  attacking  the  rights  of  the  college,  had  “  run 
his  head  against  a  wall,”  3  as  he  soon  discovered  to  his  sorrow. 
His  temporary  success,  however,  emboldened  him  to  reissue  the 


1  Lord  Wharton,  a  prominent  English  Whig,  was  the  author  of  this  satirical 
political  ballad,  which,  it  is  said,  was  sung  and  whistled  from  one  end  of  England  to 
the  other,  in  derision  of  the  King’s  policy.  It  undoubtedly  had  a  powerful  popular 
influence  in  bringing  on  the  Revolution  of  1688. 

The  ballad  began  :  — 

“Ho,  Brother  Teague,  dost  hear  de  decree? 

Lilli  Burlero,  bullen  a-la, 

Dat  we  shall  have  a  new  deputie, 

Lilli  Burlero,  bullen  a-la.” 

The  refrain,  “  Lilli  Burlero,”  etc.  (also  written  “  Lillibullero  ”),  is  said  to  have  been 
the  watchword  used  by  the  Irish  Catholics  when  they  rose  against  the  Protestants  of 
Ulster  in  1641.  See  Wilkins’  Political  Songs,  Vol.  I. 

2  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxi,  §  23. 

3  “  What  building  is  that  ?  ”  asked  the  Duke  of  Wellington  of  his  companion,  Mr. 
Croker,  pointing,  as  he  spoke,  to  Magdalen  College  wall,  just  as  they  entered  Oxford 
in  1834.*  “  That  is  the  wall  which  James  II  ran  his  head  against,”  was  the  reply. 


1685-1689]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  28 1 

Declaration  of  Indulgence  (1688).  Its  real  object,  like  that 
of  the  first  Declaration,  was  to  put  Roman  Catholics  into  still 
higher  positions  of  trust  and  power. 

541.  The  Petition  of  the  Seven  Bishops.  —  He  commanded 
the  clergy  throughout  the  realm  to  read  this  Declaration  (§  540) 
on  a  given  Sunday  from  their  pulpits.  The  Archbishop  of  Can¬ 
terbury,  accompanied  by  six  bishops,  petitioned  the  King  to  be 
excused  from  reading  it  in  their  churches.  The  King  refused  to 
consider  the  petition.  When  the  day  came,  hardly  a  clergyman 
read  the  paper,  and  in  the  few  cases  in  which  they  did,  the 
congregation  rose  and  left  rather  than  listen  to  it. 

Furious  at  such  an  unexpected  result,  James  ordered  the 
refractory  bishops  to  be  sent  to  the  Tower.  The  whole  country 
now  seemed  to  turn  against  the  King.  By  his  obstinate  folly 
james  had  succeeded  in  making  enemies  of  all  classes,  not  only 
of  the  Whig  Roundheads  (§  531)  who  had  fought  against  his 
father  in  the  civil  war,  but  also  of  the  Tory  Cavaliers  (§  531)  who 
had  fought  for  him. 

One  of  the  bishops  was  Trelawney  of  Bristol.  He  was  a  native 
of  Cornwall.  The  news  of  his  imprisonment  roused  the  rough, 
independent  population  of  that  county.  From  one  end  of  it  to 
the  other  the  people  were  now  heard  singing  :  — 

“  And  shall  Trelawney  die,  and  shall  Trelawney  die  ? 

There ’s  thirty  thousand  Cornishmen  will  know  the  reason  why.” 

Then  the  miners  took  up  the  words,  and  beneath  the  hills  and 
fields  the  ominous  echo  was  heard  :  — 

“And  shall  Trelawney  die,  and  shall  Trelawney  die? 

There ’s  twenty  thousand  underground  will  know  the  reason  why.” 

On  their  trial  the  popular  feeling  in  favor  of  the  bishops  was  so 
strong  that  not  even  James’  servile  judges  dared  to  openly  use 
their  influence  to  convict  them.  When  the  case  was  given  to  the 
jury,  the  largest  and  most  robust  man  of  the  twelve  rose  and  said 
to  the  rest :  “  Look  at  me  !  I  am  bigger  than  any  of  you,  but 
before  I  will  bring  in  a  verdict  of  guilty,  I  will  stay  here  until  I 
am  no  thicker  than  a  tobacco-pipe.”  That  decided  the  matter, 


282  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [16S5-1689 

and  the  bishops  were  acquitted  (1688).  The  news  was  received 
in  London  like  the  tidings  of  some  great  victory,  with  shouts  of 
joy,  illuminations,  and  bonfires. 

542.  Birth  of  a  Prince;  Invitation  to  William  of  Orange  (1688). 
—  But  just  before  the  acquittal  an  event  took  place  which  changed 
everything  and  brought  on  the  memorable  Revolution  of  1688. 

Up  to  this  time  the  succession  to  the  throne  after  James  rested 
with  his  two  daughters,  —  Mary,  who  had  married  William,  Prince 
of  Orange  (§  529),  and  resided  in  Holland;  and  her  younger 
sister  Anne,  who  had  married  George,  Prince  of  Denmark,  and 
was  then  living  in  London.  Both  of  the  daughters  were  zealous 
Protestants,  and  the  expectation  that  one  of  them  would  ascend 
the  English  throne  on  the  King’s  death  had  kept  the  people 
comparatively  quiet  under  the  efforts  of  James  to  restore 
Catholicism. 

But  while  the  bishops  were  in  prison  awaiting  trial  (§  541)  the 
alarming  intelligence  was  spread  that  a  son  had  been  born  to 
the  King  (1688).  If  true,  he  would  now  be  the  next  heir  to 
the  crown,  and  would  in  all  probability  be  educated  and  come 
to  power  a  Catholic.  This  prospect  brought  matters  to  a  crisis. 

Great  numbers  of  the  people,  especially  the  Whigs  (§  531), 
believed  the  whole  matter  an  imposition,  and  it  was  commonly 
reported  that  the  young  prince  was  not  the  true  son  of  the  King 
and  Queen,  but  a  child  that  had  been  smuggled  into  the  palace 
to  deceive  the  nation. 

On  the  very  day  that  the  bishops  were  set  at  liberty  (§  541) 
seven  of  the  leading  nobility  and  gentry,  representing  both 
political  parties,1  seconded  by  the  city  of  London,  sent  a  secret 
invitation  to  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  President  of  the  Dutch 
republic  (§  529).  Admiral  Herbert,  disguised  as  a  common 

1  The  seven  gentlemen  who  signed  in  cipher  the  secret  letter  to  William,  Prince 
of  Orange,  were  Henry  Sidney,  brother  of  Algernon  Sidney  (§  532) ;  Edward 
Russell,  a  kinsman  of  Lord  Russell,  beheaded  by  Charles  II  ($-532);  the  Earl  of 
Devonshire,  chief  of  the  Whig  party ;  Lord  Shrewsbury ;  Danby,  the  old  Tory 
minister  of  Charles  II ;  Compton,  Bishop  of  London,  whom  James  II  had  tyrannically 
suspended ;  and  Lord  Lumley.  See  the  letter  in  Dalrymple’s  Memoirs  of  Great 
Britain,  II,  Appendix,  p.  228. 


1685-1689]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  283 

sailor,  set  out  on  the  perilous  errand  to  the  Prince.  The  letter 
he  carried  urged  William  to  come  over  with  an  army  to  defend 
his  wife  Mary’s  claim  to  the  English  throne  and  to  protect  the 
liberty  of  the  English  people. 

After  due  consideration,  William  decided  to  accept  the  invita¬ 
tion,  which  was  probably  not  unexpected  on  his  part.  He  was 
confirmed  in  his  decision  not  only  by  the  cordial  approval  of  the 
leading  Catholic  princes  of  Europe,  except,  of  course,  Louis  XIV 
of  France,  but  also  by  the  Pope  himself,  who  had  more  than  once 
expressed  his  emphatic  disgust  at  the  foolish  rashness  of  King 
James.1 

543.  The  Coming  of  William,  and  Flight  of  James,  1688.  — 

William  landed  with  fourteen  thousand  troops.  It  was  the  fifth 
and  last  great  landing  in  the  history  of  England.2  He  declared 
that  he  came  in  Mary’s  interest  (§  542)  and  that  of  the  English 
nation,  to  secure  a  free  and  legal  Parliament  which  should 
decide  the  question  of  the  succession.  James  endeavored  to 
rally  a  force  to  resist  him,  but  Baron  Churchill,  afterward  Duke 
of  Marlborough,  and  the  King’s  son-in-law,  Prince  George,  both 
secretly  went  over  to  William’s  side. 

His  troops  likewise  deserted,  and  finally  even  his  daughter 
Anne  went  over  to  the  enemy.  “  Now  God  help  me  !  ”  exclaimed 
[ames,  in  despair;  “for  my  own  children  forsake  me!”  The 
Queen  had  already  fled  to  France,  taking  with  her  her  infant 
son,  the  unfortunate  James  Edward,  whose  birth  (§  542)  had 
caused  the  revolution.  Instead  of  a  kingdom,  he  inherited 
nothing  but  the  nickname  of  “  Pretender,”  which  he  in  turn 
transmitted  to  his  son.3  King  James  soon  followed  his  wife. 

As  he  crossed  the  Thames  in  a  boat  by  night,  James  threw  the 
great  seal  of  state  into  the  river,  in  the  vain  hope  that  without  it  a 
Parliament  could  not  be  legally  summoned  to  decide  the  question 

1  Guizot,  Histoire  de  Charles  I  (Discours  sur  l'Histoire  de  la  Revolution). 

2  The  first  being  that  of  the  Romans,  the  next  that  of  the  Saxons,  the  third  that  of 
St.  Augustine,  the  fourth  that  of  William  the  Conqueror,  the  fifth  that  of  the  Prince 
of  Orange. 

3  Prince  James  Edward  Stuart,  the  so-called  “  Old  Pretender,”  and  his  son,  Prince 
Charles  Edward  Stuart,  the  so-called  “  Young  Pretender.” 


284  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1685-1689 


which  his  adversary  had  raised.  The  King  got  as  far  as  the 
coast,  but  was  discovered  by  some  fishermen  and  brought  back. 
William  reluctantly  received  him,  and  purposely  allowed  him  to 
escape  a  second  time.  He  now  reached  France,  and  found 
generous  welcome  and  support  from  Louis  XIV,  at  the  court  of 
Versailles.1  There  could  be  now  no  reasonable  doubt  that  James’ 
daughter  Mary  (§  542)  would  receive  the  English  crown. 

544.  Character  of  the  Revolution  of  1688.  —  Never  was  a 
revolution  of  such  magnitude  and  meaning  accomplished  so 
peacefully.  Not  a  drop  of  blood  had  been  shed.  There  was 
hardly  any  excitement  or  uproar.  Even  the  bronze  statue  of  the 
runaway  king  was  permitted  to  stand  undisturbed  in  the  rear  of 
the  palace  of  Whitehall,  London,  where  it  remains  to  this  day. 

The  great  change  had  taken  place  thus  quietly  because  men’s 
minds  were  ripe  for  it.  England  had  entered  upon  another  period 
of  history,  in  which  old  institutions,  laws,  and  customs  were  passing 
away  and  all  was  becoming  new. 

Feudalism  had  vanished  under  Charles  II  (§  534),  but  political 
and  religious  persecution  had  continued.  In  future,  however,  we 
shall  hear  no  more  of  the  revocation  of  city  charters  or  of  other 
punishments  inflicted  because  of  political  opinion  (§§  531,  539), 
and  rarely  of  any  punishment  for  religious  dissent. 

Courts  of  justice  will  undergo  reform.  They  will  cease  to  be 
“  little  better  than  caverns  of  murderers,” 2  where  judges  like 
Scroggs  and  Jeffreys  (§§  530,  539)  browbeat  the  prisoners,  took 
their  guilt  for  granted,  insulted  and  silenced  witnesses  for  their 
defence,  and  even  cast  juries  into  prison  under  penalties  of  heavy 
fines,  for  venturing  to  bring  in  verdicts  contrary  to  their  wishes.3 

The  day,  too,  had  gone  by  when  an  English  sovereign  could 
cast  his  subjects  into  fetid  dungeons  in  the  Tower  and  leave  them 
to  die  there  of  lingering  disease,  in  darkness,  solitude,  and  despair. 
No  future  king  like  the  marble-hearted  James  would  sit  in  the 

1  For  the  King's  life  at  Versailles,  see  Doran’s  Monarchs  retired  from  Business. 

2  Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

3  See  Hallam,  and  also  introduction  to  Professor  Adams’  Manual  of  Historical 
Literature.  For  a  graphic  picture  of  the  times,  read,  in  Bunyan’s  Pilgrim’s  Progress, 
Christian’s  trial  before  Lord  Hategood. 


1685-1689]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  285 


court-room  at  Edinburgh,  and  watch  with  curious  delight  the 
agony  of  the  application  of  the  Scotch  instruments  of  torture, 
the  “boot,”  and  the  thumbscrew,  or  burn  Unitarian  heretics  at 
the  stake  in  Smithfield  market  place  (§  567). 

For  the  future,  thought  and  discussion  in  England  were  to  be 
in  great  measure  free,  as  in  time  they  would  be  wholly  so,  and 
perhaps  the  coward  King’s  heaviest  retribution  in  his  secure 
retreat  beyond  the  sea  was  the  knowledge  that  all  his  efforts  to 
prevent  the  coming  of  this  liberty  had  absolutely  failed. 

545.  Summary. — The  reign  of  James  must  be  regarded  as 
mainly  taken  up  with  the  attempt  of  the  King  to  rule  indepen¬ 
dently  of  Parliament  and  law,  and  to  restore  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion. 

Monmouth’s  rebellion,  though  without  real  justification,  since 
he  could  not  legitimately  claim  the  crown,  was  a  forerunner 
of  that  revolution  which  invited  William  of  Orange  to  support 
Parliament  in  placing  a  Protestant  sovereign  on  the  throne. 

lQ**-*\'** 

WILLIAM  AND  MARY  (House  of  Orange-Stuart)  — 1689-1702 

546.  The  “Convention  Parliament”;  the  Declaration  of  Right, 
1689.  —  After  the  flight  of  James  II,  a  Convention  which  was 
practically  a  Parliament  (§§  517,  543)  met,  and  declared  that, 
James  having  broken  “  the  original  contract  between  king  and 
people,”  the  throne  was  therefore  vacant.  During  the  inter¬ 
regnum1  of  a  few  weeks  the  Convention  issued  a  formal  state¬ 
ment  of  principles  under  the  name  of  the  “Declaration  of  Right,” 
1689. 2 

That  document  recited  the  illegal  and  arbitrary  acts  of  the  late 
king,  proclaimed  him  no  longer  sovereign,  and  resolved  that  the 
crown  should  be  tendered  to  William  and  Mary.3  The  Declaration 

1  Interregnum  (inter,  between,  and  regnum ,  a  king  or  reign).  The  Convention 
met  Jan.  22,  1689;  William  and  Mary  accepted  the  crown  February  13. 

2  Declaration  of  Right :  see  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix, 
page  xxii,  §  24. 

3  William  of  Orange  stood  next  in  order  of  succession  to  Mary  and  Anne  (pro¬ 
viding  the  claim  of  the  newly  born  Prince  James,  the  so-called  “  Pretender,”  was 
set  aside).  See  table,  §  58:. 


286  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1689-1702 


having  been  read  to  them  and  having  received  their  assent,  they 
were  formally  invited  to  accept  the  joint  sovereignty  of  the  realm, 
with  the  understanding  that  the  actual  administration  should  be 
vested  in  William  alone. 

547.  Jacobites  and  Non-Jurors  (1689).  —  At  the  accession  of 
the  new  sovereigns  the  extreme  Tories  (§  531),  who  believed 
the  action  of  the  Convention  unconstitutional,  continued  to 
adhere  to  James  II  as  their  lawful  king.  Henceforth  this  class 
became  known  as  “Jacobites,”  from  Jacobus,  the  Latin  name  for 
James.  They  were  especially  numerous  and  determined  in  the 
Highlands  of  Scotland  and  the  south  of  Ireland.  Though  they 
made  no  open  resistance  at  this  time,  yet  they  kept  up  a  secret 
correspondence  with  the  refugee  monarch  and  were  constantly 
plotting  for  his  restoration. 

About  four  hundred  of  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England, 
including  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  four  more  of  the 
famous  “Seven  Bishops”  (§  541),  with  some  members  of  the  uni¬ 
versities  and  also  some  Scotch  Presbyterians,  refused  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  William  and  Mary.  They  became  known  on 
this  account  as  the  “  Non- Juror s,”  1  and  although  they  were  never 
harshly  treated,  they  were  compelled  to  resign  their  positions. 

548.  The  Mutiny  and  the  Toleration  Acts,  1689. — We  have 
seen  that  one  of  the  chief  means  of  despotism  on  which  James  II 
relied  was  the  organization  of  a  powerful  standing  army  (§  540), 
such  as  was  unknown  in  England  until  Cromwell  was  compelled 
to  rule  by  military  force  (§  509).  Charles  II  had  perpetuated 
such  an  army  (§  519),  but  in  such  greatly  diminished  numbers 
that  the  body  was  no  longer  formidable. 

But  it  was  now  evident  that  owing  to  the  abolition  of  the 
feudal  levies  (§§  200,  534)  such  an  army  must  be  maintained 
at  the  King’s  command,  especially  as  war  was  impending  with 
Louis  XIV,  who  threatened  by  force  of  arms  and  with  the  help 
of  the  Jacobites  to  restore  James  to  the  English  throne.  To 
prevent  the  sovereign  from  making  bad  use  of  such  a  powder, 
Parliament  passed  a  law  called  the  “Mutiny  Act,”  1689,  which 

1  Non-Juror:  from  non,  not,  and jurare,  to  make  oath. 


689-1702]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  rEOTLE  2 87 


practically  put  the  army  under  the  control  of  the  nation,1  as 
it  has  since  remained.  Thus  all  danger  from  that  source  was 
taken  away. 

James’  next  method  for  bringing  the  country  under  the  con¬ 
trol  of  Rome  had  been  to  issue  Declarations  of  Indulgence 
(§  540).  It  was  generally  believed  that  his  object  in  granting 
these  measures  of  toleration,  which  promised  freedom  to  all  reli¬ 
gious  beliefs,  was  that  he  might  place  Catholics  in  power.  As  an 
offset  to  these  Declarations,  Parliament  now  passed  the  Tolera¬ 
tion  Act,  1689,  which  secured  freedom  of  worship  to  all  religious 
believers  except  “  Papists  and  such  as  deny  the  Trinity.” 

This  measure,  though  one-sided  and  utterly  inconsistent  with 
the  broader  and  juster  ideas  of  toleration  which  have  since  pre¬ 
vailed,  was  nevertheless  a  most  important  reform.  It  put  an  end 
at  once  and  forever  to  the  persecution  which  had  disgraced  the 
reigns  of  the  Stuarts,  though  unfortunately  it  still  left  the  Catho¬ 
lics  and  the  Unitarians  subject  to  the  heavy  hand  of  tyrannical 
oppression.'2 

549.  The  Bill  of  Rights,  1689,  and  Act  of  Settlement,  1701. — 

Not  many  months  later,  Parliament  embodied  the  Declaration 
of  Right  (§  546),  with  some  slight  changes,  in  the  Bill  of  Rights, 
1 689,®  which  received  the  signature  of  the  King  and  became  law. 
It  constitutes  the  third  and  last  great  step  which  England  has 
taken  in  constitution-making,  —  the  first  being  the  Great  Charter 
of  1215  (§  251),  and  the  second  the  Petition  of  Right  of  1628 
(§  484).  As  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  (§  534)  was  contained,  in 
germ  at  least,  in  Magna  Carta  (§313  [3]),  these  three  meas¬ 
ures  sum  up  the  written  safeguards  of  the  nation,  and  constitute, 
as  Lord  Chatham  said,  “  the  Bible  of  English  Liberty." 

1  The  Mutiny  Act  provides:  1.  That  the  standing  army  shall  be  at  the  king's 
command  —  subject  to  certain  rules  —  for  one  year  only.  2.  That  no  pay  shall  be 
issued  to  troops  except  by  special  act  of  Parliament.  3.  That  no  act  of  mutiny  can 
be  punished  except  by  the  annual  reenactment  of  the  Mutiny  Bill. 

2  In  1663  Charles  II  granted  a  charter  to  Rhode  Island  which  secured  religious 
liberty  to  that  colony.  It  was  the  first  royal  charter  recognizing  the  principle  of 
toleration. 

3  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxii, §25,  and 

page  xxxi. 


288  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1689-1702 


With  the  passage  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,1  the  doctrine  of  the 
Divine  Right  of  Kings  to  govern  without  being  accountable  to 
their  subjects  (§§  471,  481),  which  James  I  and  his  descendants 
had  tried  so  hard  to  reduce  to  practice,  came  to  an  end  forever. 

The  chief  provisions  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  were  :  1.  That  the  king 
should  not  maintain  a  standing  army  in  time  of  peace,  except  by 
consent  of  Parliament.  2.  That  no  money  should  be  taken  from 
the  people  save  by  the  consent  of  Parliament.  3.  That  every 
subject  has  the  right  to  petition  the  Crown  for  the  redress  of  any 
grievance.  4.  That  the  election  of  members  of  Parliament  ought 
to  be  free  from  interference.  5.  That  Parliament  should  frequently 
assemble  and  enjoy  entire  freedom  of  debate.  6.  That  the  king 
be  debarred  from  interfering  in  any  way  with  the  proper  execu¬ 
tion  of  the  laws.  7.  That  a  Roman  Catholic  or  a  person  marry¬ 
ing  a  Roman  Catholic  be  henceforth  incapable  of  receiving  the 
crown  of  England. 

Late  in  the  reign  (1701)  Parliament  reaffirmed  and  still  further 
extended  the  provisions  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  by  the  Act  of 
Settlement,  which  established  a  new  royal  line  of  sovereigns  con¬ 
fined  exclusively  to  Protestants.2  This  law  practically  abolished 
the  principle  of  hereditary  succession  and  reestablished  in  the 
clearest  and  most  decided  manner  the  right  of  the  nation  to 
choose  its  own  rulers.  According  to  that  measure,  “  an  English 
sovereign  is  now  as  much  the  creature  of  an  act  of  Parliament 
as  the  pettiest  tax-gatherer  in  his  realm  ”  ; 3  and  he  is  dependent 
for  his  office  and  power  on  the  will  of  the  people  as  really,  though 
of  course  not  as  directly,  as  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

1  For  summary  of  the  bill,  see  Constitutional  Documents  in  the  Appendix,  page 
xxxi.  For  the  complete  text,  see  Taswell-Langmead’s  Constitutional  History  of 
England  or  Lee’s  Source  Book  of  English  History. 

2  The  Act  of  Settlement  (see  page  xxxii  of  Appendix)  provided  that  after  Princess 
Anne  (in  default  of  issue  by  William  or  Anne)  the  crown  should  descend  to  the 
Electress  Sophia  of  Hanover,  Germany,  and  her  Protestant  descendants.  The 
Electress  Sophia  was  the  granddaughter  of  James  I.  She  married  Ernest  Augustus, 
Elector  (or  ruler)  of  Hanover.  As  Hallam  says,  she  was  “  very  far  removed  from 
any  hereditary  title,”  as  aside  from  James  II’s  son  (§  542)>  whose  legitimacy  no  one 
now  doubted,  there  were  several  who  stood  nearer  in  right  of  succession. 

3  Green,  History  of  the  English  People 


1689-1702]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  289 

550.  Benefits  of  the  Revolution.  —  Foremost  in  the  list  of 
benefits  which  England  gained  by  the  revolution  should  be  placed: 
r.  That  Toleration  Act  already  mentioned  (§  548),  which  gave 
to  a  very  large  number  the  right  of  worshipping  God  according 
to  the  dictates  of  conscience. 

2.  Parliament  now  established  the  salutary  rule  that  no  money 
should  be  voted  to  the  king  except  for  specific  purposes,  and  it 
also  limited  the  royal  revenue  to  a  few  years’  supply  instead  of 
granting  it  for  life,  as  had  been  done  in  the  case  of  Charles  II 
and  James.1  As  the  Mutiny  Act  (§  548)  made  the  army  depend¬ 
ent  for  its  existence  on  the  annual  meeting  and  action  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  these  two  measures  practically  gave  the 
people  full  control  of  the  two  great  powers,  —  the  purse  and 
the  sword,  —  which  they  have  ever  since  retained. 

3.  Parliament  next  enacted  that  judges  should  hold  office  not 
as  heretofore,  at  his  majesty’s  pleasure,  but  during  good  behavior 
(or  until  the  death  of  the  reigning  sovereign  vacated  their  com¬ 
missions).  This  took  away  that  dangerous  authority  of  the  king 
over  the  courts  of  justice,  which  had  caused  so  much  oppression 
and  cruelty. 

4.  But,  as  Macaulay  remarks,  of  all  the  reforms  produced  by 
the  change  of  government,  perhaps  none  proved  more  extensively 
useful  than  the  establishment  of  the  liberty  of  the  press.  Up  to 
this  time  no  book  or  newspaper  could  be  published  in  England 
without  a  license.2 3  During  the  Commonwealth  Milton  had 
earnestly  labored  to  get  this  severe  law  repealed,  declaring  that 
“  while  he  who  kills  a  man  kills  a  reasonable  creature,  ...  he 
who  destroys  a  good  book  [by  refusing  to  let  it  appear]  kills 
reason  itself.”  8  But  under  James  II,  Chief-Justice  Scroggs  had 
declared  it  a  crime  to  publish  anything  whatever  concerning  the 
Government,  whether  true  or  false,  without  a  license.  During  that 
reign  there  were  only  four  places  in  England  —  namely,  London, 
Oxford,  Cambridge,  and  York  —  where  any  book,  pamphlet,  or 


1  Later,  limited  to  a  single  year’s  supply. 

2  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxiii,  §  26. 

3  Milton’s  Areopagitica,  or  speech  in  behalf  of  unlicensed  printing. 


290  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1689-1702 


newspaper  could  be  legally  issued,  and  then  only  with  the  sanction 
of  a  rigid  inspector. 

Under  William  and  Mary  this  restriction  was  removed.  Hence¬ 
forth  men  were  free  not  only  to  think,  but  to  print  and  circulate 
their  thought  (subject,  of  course,  to  the  law  of  libel).  They  could 
thus  bring  the  Government  more  directly  before  that  bar  of 
public  opinion  which  judges  all  men  and  all  institutions. 

551.  James  II  lands  in  Ireland  (1689);  Act  of  Attainder 
(1689)  ;  Siege  of  Londonderry  (1689)  ;  Battle  of  the  Boyne 
(1690)  ;  Glencoe  (1692)  ;  Peace  of  Ryswick  (1697).  —  But  though 
William  was  King  of  England,  and  had  been  accepted  as  King  of 
Scotland,  yet  the  Irish,  like  the  Scotch  Highlanders,  refused  to 
recognize  him  as  their  lawful  sovereign.  The  great  body  of  Irish 
population  was  then,  as  now,  Roman  Catholic.  But  they  had 
been  gradually  dispossessed  of  their  hold  on  the  land  (§§  454, 
475,  505),  and  the  larger  part  of  the  most  desirable  portion  of  the 
island  was  owned  by  a  few  hundred  thousand  Protestant  colonists. 

On  the  other  hand,  James  II  had,  during  his  reign,  put  the  civil 
government  and  the  military  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Catholics. 
Tyrconnel  (§  540)  now  raised  the  standard  of  rebellion  in  Ireland 
in  the  interest  of  the  Catholics,  and  invited  James  to  come  and 
regain  his  throne.  The  Protestants  of  the  north  stood  by  William, 
and  thus  got  that  name  of  Orangemen  (§  542)  which  they  have 
ever  since  retained.  James  landed  in  Ireland  in  the  spring  (1689) 
with  a  small  French  force  lent  him  by  Louis  XIV  (§  543). 

He  established  his  headquarters  at  Dublin.  Not  long  after¬ 
ward  he  reluctantly  issued  that  great  Act  of  Attainder  (1689) 
which  summoned  all  who  were  in  rebellion  against  his  authority 
to  appear  for  trial  on  a  given  day,  or  be  declared  traitors,  hanged, 
drawn,  and  quartered,  and  their  property  confiscated.1  Next,  the 
Protestant  city  of  Londonderry  (§  475)  was  besieged  (1689). 

1  Attainder :  from  the  Old  French  attaindre,  to  accuse,  to  stain.  This  act  con¬ 
tained  between  two  and  three  thousand  names.  It  embraced  all  classes,  from  half 
the  peerage  of  Ireland  to  tradesmen,  women,  and  children.  If  they  failed  to  appear, 
they  were  to  be  put  to  death  without  trial.  James  was  reluctant  to  issue  the  great 
Act  of  Attainder  of  16S9,  simply  because  he  thought  it  contrary  to  his  political 
interests. 


1689-1702]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  29 1 


For  more  than  three  months  it  held  out  against  shot  and  shell, 
famine  and  fever. 

The  starving  inhabitants,  exceeding  thirty  thousand  in  number, 
were  finally  reduced  to  the  last  extremities.  Nothing  was  left  to 
eat  but  a  few  miserable  horses  and  some  salted  hides.  As  they 
looked  into  each  other’s  hollow  eyes,  the  question  came,  Must  we 
surrender?  Then  it  was  that  an  aged  clergyman,  the  venerable 
George  Walker,  one  of  the  governors  of  the  city,  pleaded  with 
them,  Bible  in  hand,  to  remain  firm. 

That  appeal  carried  the  day.  They  declared  that  rather  than 
open  the  gates  to  the  enemy,  they  would  perish  of  hunger,  or,  as 
some  voice  whispered,  that  they  would  fall  “  first  on  the  horses  and 
the  hides,  —  then  on  the  prisoners,  —  then  —  on  each  other  !  ”  But 
at  this  moment,  when  all  hope  seemed  lost,  a  shout  of  triumph 
was  heard.  An  English  force  had  sailed  up  the  river,  broken 
through  all  obstructions,  and  the  valiant  city  was  saved. 

A  year  later  (1690)  occurred  the  decisive  battle  of  the  Boyne,1 
at  which  William  commanded  in  person  on  one  side,  while  James 
was  present  on  the  opposite  side.  William  had  a  somewhat  larger 
force  and  by  far  the  greater  number  of  well-armed,  veteran  troops. 
The  contest  ended  with  the  utter  defeat  of  James.  He  stood  on 
a  hill  at  a  safe  distance,  and  when  he  saw  that  the  battle  was 
going  against  him,  turned  and  fled  to  France.  William,  on  the 
othe'r  hand,  though  suffering  from  a  wound,  led  his  own  men. 
The  cowardly  behavior  of  James  excited  the  disgust  and  scorn  of 
both  the  French  and  Irish.  “Change  kings  with  us,”  shouted  an 
Irish  officer  later,  to  one  of  William’s  men,  “  change  kings  with 
us,  and  we’ll  fight  you  over  again.” 

The  war  was  brought  to  an  end  by  the  Treaty  of  Limerick 
(1691),  when  about  ten  thousand  Irish  soldiers  who  had  fought 
for  James,  and  who  no  longer  cared  to  remain  in  their  own  coun¬ 
try  after  their  defeat,  were  permitted  to  go  to  France.  “When 
the  wild  cry  of  the  women,  who  stood  watching  their  departure, 
was  hushed,  the  silence  of  death  settled  down  upon  Ireland.  For 

1  Fought  in  the  east  of  Ireland,  on  the  banks  of  the  river  ef  that  name.  See  Map 
No.  1 8,  facing  page  346. 


292  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1689-1702 


a  hundred  years  the  country  remained  at  peace,  but  the  peace  was 
that  of  despair.”  1  In  violation  of  that  treaty,  a  severe  act  was 
passed  against  Roman  Catholics ;  they  were  hunted  like  wild 
beasts,  and  terrible  vengeance  was  now  taken  for  that  Act  of 
Attainder  which  James  had  foolishly  been  persuaded  to  issue. 
Furthermore,  England  selfishly  closed  her  own  ports  and  those 
of  her  colonies  against  Irish  products ;  this  policy  starved  the 
industry  of  that  unfortunate  island. 

Fighting  against  William  and  Mary  had  also  been  going  on  in 
Scotland;  for  Claverhouse  (§  524)  was  an  ardent  adherent  of 
James  II  and  vowed,  “  Ere  the  King’s  crown  shall  fall,  there  are 
crowns  to  be  broke.”2  But  the  Jacobites  had  been  conquered, 
and  a  proclamation  was  sent  out  commanding  all  the  Highland 
clans  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  before  the  beginning  of  the 
new  year  (1692). 

A  chief  of  the  clan  of  the  Macdonalds  of  Glencoe,  through  no 
fault  of  his  own,  failed  to  make  submission  within  the  appointed 
time.  Scotch  enemies  of  the  clan  gave  the  King  to  understand 
that  the  chief  had  declined  taking  the  oath,  and  urged  William 
“  to  extirpate  that  set  of  thieves.”  The  King  signed  an  order  to 
that  effect,  probably  without  reading  it,  or,  at  any  rate,  without 
understanding  what  was  intended. 

The  Scotch  authorities  managed  the  rest  in  their  own  way. 
They  sent  a  body  of  soldiers  to  Glencoe  who  were  hospitably 
received  by  the  Macdonalds.  After  stopping  with  them  a  num¬ 
ber  of  days,  they  rose  before  light  one  winter  morning,  and,  sud¬ 
denly  attacking  their  friendly  hosts,  murdered  all  the  men  who 
did  not  escape,  and  drove  the  women  and  children  out  into  the 
snowdrifts  to  perish  of  cold  and  hunger. 

They  finished  their  work  of  destruction  by  burning  the  cabins 
and  driving  away  the  cattle.  By  this  act,  Glencoe,  or  the  “  Glen 
of  Weeping,”  was  changed  into  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of 
Death.  The  blame  which  attaches  to  William  is  that  he  did 
nothing  toward  punishing  those  who  planned  and  carried  out  the 
horrible  massacre. 


1  Grpen's  English  People. 


2  See  Scott’s  Poems,  “  Bonny  Dundee.’ 


1689-1702]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  293 

The  English  commander,  Admiral  Russell,  like  many  of 
William’s  pretended  friends  and  supporters,  had  been  engaged 
in  treasonable  correspondence  with  James.  If  the  latter  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  recovering  his  crown,  the  Admiral  hoped  to  make  sure 
of  the  sunshine  of  royal  favor.  But  at  the  last  he  changed  his 
mind  and  fought  so  bravely  in  the  sea-fight  off  La  Hogue  that  the 
French  were  utterly  beaten. 

The  continental  wars  of  William  continued,  however,  for  the 
next  five  years,  until  by  the  Peace  of  Rysvvick,1  1697,  Louis  XIV 
bound  himself  to  recognize  William  as  King  of  England,  the 
Princess  Anne 2  as  his  successor,  to  withdraw  all  support  from 
James,  and  to  place  the  chief  fortresses  of  the  Low  Countries 
in  the  hands  of  the  Dutch  garrisons.  The  Peace  of  Ryswick 
marked  the  end  of  the  conspiracy  between  Louis  and  the  Stuarts 
to  turn  England  into  a  Roman  Catholic  country  dependent  on 
France  (§§  528,  540).  When  William  went  in  solemn  state  to 
return  thanks  for  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  it  was  to  the  new 
cathedral  of  St.  Paul’s,  which  Wren  had  nearly  completed  (§  526), 
and  which  was  then  first  used  for  public  worship. 

552.  The  National  Debt  (1693)  ;  the  Bank  of  England 
(1694).  —  William  had  now  gained,  at  least  temporarily,  the 
object  that  he  had  in  view  when  he  accepted  the  English  crown. 
He  had  succeeded  in  drawing  the  English  into  a  close  defensive 
alliance  against  Louis  XIV,3  who,  as  we  have  seen,  was  bent  on 
destroying  both  the  political  and  the  religious  liberty  of  the 
Dutch  as  a  Protestant  people. 

The  constant  wars  which  followed  William’s  accession  had 
compelled  the  King  to  borrow  large  sums  from  the  London 
merchants.  Out  of  these  loans  sprang  the  National  Debt.  It 
was  destined  to  grow  from  less  than  a  million  of  pounds  to  so 
many  hundred  millions,  that  all  thought  of  ever  paying  it  is  now 
given  up.  The  second  result  was  the  organization  of  a  banking 
company  for  the  management  of  this  colossal  debt ;  together  the 


1  Ryswick:  a  village  of  Holland,  near  The  Hague. 

2  The  second  (Protestant)  daughter  of  James  II.  See  §  542. 

3  See  Guizot,  History  of  Civilization,  Chapter  XIII. 


294  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [16S9-1702 


two  were  destined  to  become  more  widely  known  than  any  of 
William’s  victories. 

The  building  erected  by  that  company  stands  on  Thread- 
needle  Street,  in  the  very  heart  of  London.  In  one  of  its 
courts  is  a  statue  of  the  King  set  up  (1734),  bearing  this 
inscription  :  “To  the  memory  of  the  best  of  princes,  William  of 
Orange,  founder  of  the  Bank  of  England,”  —  by  far  the  largest 
and  most  important  banking  institution  in  the  world. 

553.  William’s  Death. — William  had  a  brave  soul  in  a  feeble 
body.  All  his  life  he  was  an  invalid,  but  he  learned  to  conquer 
disease,  or  at  least  to  hold  it  in  check,  as  he  conquered  his 
enemies.  He  was  never  popular  in  England,  and  at  one  time 
was  kept  from  returning  to  his  native  country  only  through  the 
earnest  protestation  of  his  chancellor,  Lord  Somers,  who  refused 
to  stamp  the  King’s  resignation  with  the  Great  Seal. 

There  were  plots  to  assassinate  him,  and  many  who  pretended 
to  sustain  him  were  treacherous,  and  simply  wanted  a  good  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  go  over  to  the  side  of  James.  Others  were  eager  to 
hear  of  his  death,  and  when  it  occurred,  through  the  stumbling 
of  his  horse  over  a  mole-hill,  they  drank  to  “  the  little  gentleman 
in  black  velvet,”  whose  underground  work  caused  the  accident. 

554.  Summary. — William’s  reign  was  a  prolonged  battle  for 
Protestantism  and  for  the  maintenance  of  political  liberty  in 
both  England  and  Holland.  Invalid  as  he  was,  he  was  yet  a  man 
of  indomitable  resolution  as  well  as  indomitable  courage. 

Though  a  foreigner  by  birth,  and  caring  more  for  Holland  than 
for  any  country  in  the  world,  yet,  through  his  Irish  and  conti¬ 
nental  wars  with  James  and  Louis,  he  helped  more  than  any  man 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  Cromwell  alone  excepted,  to  make 
England  free. 

ANNE  — 1702-1714 

/V 

555.  Accession  and  Character  of  Anne.  —  William  left  no 
children,  and  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  Bill  of  Rights 
(§  549)1  the  Princess  Anne,  younger  sister  of  the  late  Queen 

!£ee  the  Bill  of  Rights  (third  paragraph)  on  page  xxxi,  Appendix. 


1702-1714]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  295 


Mary,  now  came  to  the  throne.  She  was  a  negative  character, 
with  kindly  impulses  and  little  intelligence.  “  When  in  good 
humor  she  was  meekly  stupid,  and  when  in  ill  humor,  sulkily 
stupid.”  1  But  if  there  was  any  person  duller  than  her  majesty, 
that  person  was  her  majesty’s  husband,  Prince  George  of 
Denmark.  Charles  II,  who  knew  him  well,  said,  “  I  have  tried 
Prince  George  sober,  and  I  have  tried  him  drunk,  and  drunk  or 
sober,  there  is  nothing  in  him.” 

Along  with  the  amiable  qualities  which  gained  for  the  new 
ruler  the  title  of  “Good  Queen  Anne”  her  majesty  inherited  the 
obstinacy,  the  prejudices,  and  the  superstitions  of  the  Stuarts. 
Though  a  most  zealous  Protestant  and  an  ardent  upholder  of 
the  Church  of  England,  she  declared  her  faith  in  the  Divine 
Right  of  Kings  (§§  471,  481),  which  had  cost  her  grandfather 
Charles  his  head,  and  she  was  the  last  English  sovereign  who 
believed  that  the  royal  hand  could  dispel  disease. 

The  first  theory  she  never  openly  proclaimed  in  any  offensive 
way,  but  the  harmless  delusion  that  she  could  relieve  the  sick 
was  a  favorite  notion  with  her,  and  we  find  in  the  London  Gazette 
(March  12,  1712)  an  official  announcement,  stating  that  on 
certain  days  the  Queen  would  “  touch  ”  for  the  cure  of  “  king’s 
evil,”  or  scrofula. 

Among  the  multitudes  who  went  to  test  her  power  was  a  poor 
Lichfield  bookseller.  He  carried  to  her  his  little  half-blind,  sickly 
boy,  who,  by  virtue  either  of  her  majesty’s  beneficent  fingers  or 
from  some  other  and  better  reason,  grew  up  to  be  known  as  the 
famous  author  and  lexicographer,  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson.2 

556.  Whig  and  Tory ;  High  Church  and  Low.  —  Politically,  the 
government  of  the  country  was  divided  between  the  two  great 
parties  of  the  Whigs  and  the  Tories  (§  531),  since  succeeded  by 
the  Liberals  and  Conservatives.  Though  mutually  hostile,  each 
believing  that  its  rival’s  success  meant  national  ruin,  yet  both 


1  Macaulay’s  England;  and  compare  Stanhope’s  Reign  of  Anne. 

2  Johnson  told  Boswell,  his  biographer,  that  he  remembered  the  incident,  and 
that  “he  had  a  confused,  but  somehow  a  sort  of  solemn  recollection  of  a  lady  in 
diamonds  and  a  long  black  hood.”  —  Boswell’s  Johnson. 


296  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1702-1714 

were  sincerely  opposed  to  despotism  on  the  one  hand,  and  to 
anarchy  on  the  other.  The  Whigs,  setting  Parliament  above  the 
throne,  were  pledged  to  maintain  the  Act  of  Settlement  (§  549)1 
and  the  Protestant  succession ;  while  the  Tories,  insisting  on 
hereditary  sovereignty,  were  anxious  to  set  aside  that  act  and 
restore  the  excluded  Stuarts. 

The  Church  of  England  was  likewise  divided  into  two  parties, 
known  as  High  Church  and  Low  Church.  The  first,  w'ho  w7ere 
generally  Tories,  wished  to  exalt  the  power  of  the  bishops  and 
were  opposed  to  the  toleration  of  Dissenters  (§§  524,  548)  ;  the 
second,  who  w7ere  Whigs  as  a  rule,  believed  it  best  to  curtail  the 
authority  of  the  bishops,  and  to  secure  to  all  Trinitarian  Protestants 
entire  liberty  of  worship  and  all  civil  and  political  rights  and  privi¬ 
leges.  Thus  to  the  bitterness  of  heated  political  controversy  there 
was  added  the  still  more  acrid  bitterness  of  theological  dispute. 

Addison  illustrates  the  feeling  that  then  prevailed  by  an  amus¬ 
ing  story  of  an  earlier  occurrence.  A  boy  w'ho  had  lost  his  wray 
in  London  was  called  a  “  popish  cur  ”  by  a  Whig  because  he  ven¬ 
tured  to  inquire  for  Saint  Anne’s  Lane,  while  he  was  cuffed  for 
irreverence  by  a  Tory  wrhen,  correcting  himself,  he  asked  bluntly 
for  Anne’s  Lane. 

The  Queen,  although  she  owed  her  crown  mainly  to  the  Whigs 
(§  531),  sympathized  with  the  Tories  (§  531)  and  the  High 
Church,  and  did  all  in  her  powder  to  strengthen  both.  As  for  the 
leaders  of  the  two  parties,  they  seem  to  have  looked  out  first  for 
themselves,  and  afterward  —  often  a  long  way  afterward  —  for 
their  country. 

During  the  whole  reign  they  wrere  plotting  and  counterplotting, 
mining  and  undermining.  Their  subtle  schemes  to  secure  office 
and  destroy  each  other  become  as  incomprehensible  and  as  fath¬ 
omless  as  those  of  the  fallen  angels  in  Milton’s  vision  of  the 
Bottomless  Pit. 

557.  The  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  (1702).  —  Anne  had 
no  sooner  come  to  the  throne  than  war  broke  out  with  Trance.  It 
had  its  origin  in  the  previous  reign.  William  III  had  cared  little 

•  1  See  Act  of  Settlement  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxxii. 


1702-1714]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  297 


for  England  compared  with  his  native  Holland,  whose  interests 
always  had  the  first  place  in  his  heart.  He  had  spent  his  life  bat¬ 
tling  to  preserve  the  independence  of  the  Dutch  republic  and  fight¬ 
ing  Louis  XIV  of  France,  who  was  determined,  if  possible,  to  annex 
the  Netherlands,  including  Holland,  to  his  own  dominion  (§  551). 

During  the  latter  part  of  William’s  reign  the  French  King 
seemed  likely  to  be  able  to  accomplish  his  purpose.  The  King 
of  Spain,  who  had  no  children,  was  in  feeble  health,  and  at  his 
death  it  was  probable  that  Louis  XIV’s  grandson,  Philip  of  Anjou, 
would  receive  the  crown. 

Louis  XIV  was  then  the  most  powerful  prince  in  Europe,  and 
should  his  grandson  become  King  of  Spain,  it  meant  that  the 
French  monarch  would  eventually  add  the  Spanish  dominions  to 
his  own.  These  dominions  comprised  not  only  Spain  proper,  but 
a  large  part  of  the  Netherlands  adjoining  Holland,1  portions  of 
Italy,  and  immense  provinces  in  both  North  and  South  America, 
including  the  West  Indies.  Such  an  empire,  if  it  came  under  the 
control  of  Louis,  would  make  him  irresistible  on  the  continent  of 
Europe,  and  the  little,  free  Protestant  states  of  Holland  could  not 
hope  to  stand  before  him. 

William  had  endeavored  to  prevent  Louis  from  carrying  out  his 
designs  respecting  Spain  by  two  secret  treaties,  and  also  by  a 
triple  alliance  formed  by  England,  Holland,  and  Germany,  to 
defend  themselves  against  the  prospective  preponderating  power 
of  France.  Louis  XIV  had  signed  these  treaties,  but  had  no  inten¬ 
tion  of  abiding  by  them.  When,  not  long  afterward,  the  King  of 
Spain  died  and  left  me  crown  to  Philip  of  Anjou,  the  French 
sovereign  openly  declared  his  intention  of  placing  him  on  the 
Spanish  throne,  saying  significantly  as  his  grandson  left  Paris  for 
Madrid,  “  The  Pyrenees  no  longer  exist.”  2 

1  The  whole  of  the  Netherlands  at  one  time  belonged  to  Spain,  but  the  northern 
part,  or  Holland,  had  succeeded  in  establishing  its  independence,  and  was  protected 
on  the  southern  frontier  by  a  line  of  fortified  towns. 

2  When  Philip  went  to  Spain,  Louis  XIV,  by  letters  patent,  conditionally 
reserved  the  succession  to  the  Spanish  throne  to  France,  thus  virtually  uniting  the 
two  countries,  so  that  the  Pyrenees  Mountains  would  no  longer  have  any  political 
meaning  as  a  boundary. 


29B  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1702-17 14 


Furthermore,  Louis  now  put  French  garrisons  in  the  border 
towns  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  showing  that  he  regarded  them 
as  practically  his  own,  and  he  thus  had  a  force  ready  at  any 
moment  to  march  across  the  frontier  into  Holland.  Finally,  on 
the  death  of  James  II,  which  occurred  shortly  before  William’s, 
Louis  publicly  acknowledged  the  exiled  monarch’s  son,  James 
Edward,  the  so-called  “  Old  Pretender  ”  (§§  542,  543),  as  rightful 
sovereign  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland. 

This,  and  this  only,  effectually  roused  the  English  people  ;  they 
were  preparing  for  hostilities  when  William’s  sudden  death 
occurred.  Immediately  after  Anne  came  to  the  throne  (1702) 
war  was  declared,  which,  since  it  had  grown  out  of  Louis’  designs 
on  the  crown  of  Spain,  was  called  the  “War  of  the  Spanish 
Succession.” 

The  contest  was  begun  by  England,  mainly  to  prevent  the 
French  King  from  carrying  out  his  threat  of  placing  the  so-called 
“Pretender”  on  the  English  throne  and  overturning  the  Bill  of 
Rights  (§  549)  and  the  Act  of  Settlement  (§  549),  thus  restoring 
the  country  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Stuarts.  Later,  the  war  came 
to  have  two  other  important  objects.  The  first  of  these  was  the 
defence  of  Holland,  now  a  most  valuable  ally ;  the  second  was 
the  protection  of  the  Virginia  and  New  England  colonies  against 
the  power  of  France,  which  threatened  through  its  own  American 
colonies,  and  through  the  extensive  Spanish  possessions  it  expected 
to  acquire,  to  get  control  of  the  whole  of  the  new  world.1 

Thus  England  had  three  objects  at  stake  :  1.  The  maintenance 
of  Protestant  government  at  home.  2.  The  maintenance  of  the 
Protestant  power  of  Holland.  3.  The  possession  of  a  large  part 
of  the  American  continent.  For  this  reason  the  War  of  the 
Spanish  Succession  may  be  regarded  as  the  beginning  of  a  second 
Hundred  Years’  War  between  England  and  France  (§  289), 2 


1  At  this  time  England  had  twelve  American  colonies  extending  from  New  Eng¬ 
land  to  South  Carolina,  inclusive,  with  part  of  Newfoundland.  France  and  Spain 
claimed  all  the  rest  of  the  continent. 

2  During  the  next  eighty  years  fighting  was  going  on  between  England  and  France, 
directly  or  indirectly,  for  a  great  part  of  the  time. 


To  face  page  294. 


1702-1714]  .DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  299 


destined  to  decide  which  was  to  build  up  the  great  empire  of  the 
future  in  the  western  hemisphere.1 

558.  Marlborough  ;  Blenheim  and  Other  Victories  (1702-1709). 
—  John  Churchill,  Duke  of  Marlborough  (§  543),  commanded  the 
English  and  Dutch  forces,  and  had  for  his  ally  Prince  Eugene  of 
Savoy,  who  led  the  German  armies.  The  duke,  who  was  known 
in  the  enemy’s  camps  by  the  flattering  name  of  “  the  handsome 
Englishman,”  had  risen  from  obscurity.  He  owed  the  beginning 
of  his  success  to  his  good  looks  and  a  court  intrigue.  In  politics 
he  sympathized  chiefly  with  the  Tories  (§  531),  but  his  interests 
in  the  war  led  him  to  support  the  Whigs  (§  531). 

He  was  avaricious,  unscrupulous,  perfidious.  James  II  trusted 
him,  and  he  deceived  him  and  went  over  to  William  (§  543)  ; 
William  trusted  him,  and  he  deceived  him  and  opened  a  treason¬ 
able  correspondence  with  the  dethroned  James ;  Anne  trusted 
him,  and  he  would  undoubtedly  have  betrayed  her  if  the  so-called 
“Pretender”  (§§  542,  543)  had  only  possessed  means  to  bid 
high  enough,  or  in  any  way  show  that  his  cause  was  likely  to  be 
successful. 

In  his  greed  for  money  he  hesitated  at  nothing  ;  he  took  bribes 
from  army  contractors,  and  robbed  his  soldiers  of  their  pay ; 
though  in  this  he  was  perhaps  no  worse  than  many  other  generals 
of  his,  and  even  of  later  times.2 

As  a  soldier,  Marlborough  had  no  equal.  Voltaire  says  of  him 
with  truth  that  “  he  never  besieged  a  fortress  which  he  did  not 
take,  nor  fought  a  battle  which  he  did  not  win.”  This  man,  at 
once  so  able  and  so  false,  to  whom  war  was  a  private  speculation 
rather  than  a  contest  for  right  or  principle,  now  opened  the 
campaign.  He  captured  those  fortresses  in  the  Spanish  Nether¬ 
lands  which  Louis  XIV  had  garrisoned  with  French  troops  to 
menace  Holland ;  but  he  could  not  induce  the  enemy  to  risk  a 
battle  in  the  open  field. 

At  length,  Marlborough,  by  a  brilliant  movement  (1704), 
changed  the  scene  of  the  war  from  the  Netherlands  to  Bavaria. 

1  See  Seeley’s  Expansion  of  England. 

2  See  Thackeray’s  Henry  Esmond. 


300  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1702-1714 


There,  at  the  little  village  of  Blenheim,1  he,  with  Prince  Eugene, 
gained  a  victory  over  the  French  which  saved  Germany  from  the 
power  of  Louis  XIV.  England,  out  of  gratitude  for  the  humilia¬ 
tion  of  her  powerful  enemy,  presented  the  duke  with  the  ancient 
royal  Park  of  Woodstock,  and  built  for  him,  at  the  nation’s  cost, 
that  palace  of  Blenheim  still  occupied  by  descendants  of  the  duke’s 
family.2  A  few  days  before  the  battle  of  Blenheim,  a  powerful 
English  fleet  had  attacked  and  taken  Gibraltar  (1704).  England 
thus  gained  and  still  holds  the  command  of  the  great  inland  sea 
of  the  Mediterranean. 

In  the  Netherlands,  two  years  later,  Marlborough  won  the  battle 
of  Ramillies,3  by  which  the  whole  of  that  country  was  recovered 
from  the  French.  Two  years  from  that  time  Louis’  forces  marched 
back  into  the  Netherlands,  and  were  beaten  at  Oudenarde  (1708), 
where  they  were  trying  to  recover  the  territory  they  had  lost.  A 
year  afterward,  Marlborough  carried  the  war  into  Northern  France, 
fought  his  last  great  fight,  and  gained  his  last  great  victory  at 
Malplaquet4  (1709).  The  power  of  Louis  was  now  so  far  broken 
that  both  England  and  Europe  could  breathe  freely,  and  the 
English  colonies  in  America  felt  that  for  the  present  there  was 
no  danger  of  their  being  driven  into  the  Atlantic  by  either  the 
French  or  the  Spaniards. 

559.  The  Powers  behind  the  Throne  ;  Jennings  versus  Masham. 

—  While  the  war  was  going  on,  the  real  power,  so  far  as  the  crown 
was  concerned,  though  in  Anne’s  name,  was  practically  in  the 
hands  of  Sarah  Jennings,  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  who  held  the 
office  of  Mistress  of  the  Robes.  She  and  the  Queen  had  long  been 
inseparable,  and  it  was  her  influence  that  caused  Anne  to  desert 
her  father  (§  543)  and  espouse  the  cause  of  William  of  Orange. 

The  imperious  temper  of  the  duchess  carried  all  before  it,  and 
in  her  department  she  won  victories  which  might  be  compared 

1  See  Map  No.  16,  facing  page  298. 

2  Blenheim :  a  short  distance  from  Oxford.  The  palace  grounds  are  about  twelve 
miles  in  circumference.  The  Marlborough  family  hold  Blenheim  on  condition  that 
they  present  a  flag  every  year  (August  2)  to  the  English  sovereign  at  Windsor  Castle. 

3  Ramillies  (Ram'ee-leez,  English  pronunciation;  or  Ra-me'ye'). 

4  Malplaquet  (Mal'pla-ka'). 


1702-1714]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  301 


with  those  the  duke,  her  husband,  gained  on  the  field  of  battle. 
In  time,  indeed,  her  sway  over  her  royal  companion  became  so 
absolute  that  she  decided  everything,  from  questions  of  state  to 
the  cut  of  a  gown  or  the  color  of  a  ribbon,  so  that  it  finally  grew 
to  be  a  common  saying  that  “  Queen  Anne  reigns,  but  Queen 
Sarah  governs.”  1 

While  she  continued  in  power,  she  used  her  influence  to  urge 
forward  the  war  with  France  undertaken  by  England  to  check  the 
designs  of  Louis  XIV  on  Spain  and  Holland,  and  also  to  punish 
him  for  his  recognition  of  the  claim  of  the  Pretender  to  the  Eng¬ 
lish  crown  (§  557).  Her  object  was  to  advance  her  husband,  who, 
as  commander-in-chief  of  the  English  and  Dutch  forces  on  the 
continent,  had  won  fame  and  fortune,- — the  first  by  his  splendid 
ability,  the  second  by  his  unscrupulous  greed  (§  558). 

After  a  number  of  years,  the  Queen  and  the  duchess  quarrelled, 
and  the  latter  was  superseded  by  her  cousin,  a  Mrs.  Masham 
( 1 7 1 1 ) ,  who  soon  got  as  complete  control  of  Anne  as  the  former 
favorite  had  possessed.  Mrs.  Masham  was  as  sly  and  supple  as 
the  duchess  had  been  dictatorial  and  violent.  She  was  cousin  to 
Robert  Harley,  a  prominent  Tory  politician  (§531).  Through 
her  influence  Harley  now  became  Prime  Minister  in  everything 
but  name. 

The  Whig  war  policy  was  abandoned,  negotiations  for  peace 
were  secretly  opened,  and  Marlborough  was  ordered  home  in 
disgrace  on  a  charge  of  having  robbed  the  Government.  Mr. 
Masham,  much  to  his  wife’s  satisfaction,  was  created  a  peer  of 
the  realm,  and  finally  a  treaty  was  drafted  for  an  inglorious 
peace.  Thus  it  was,  as  Hallam  remarks,  that  “  the  fortunes  of 
Europe  were  changed  by  the  insolence  of  one  waiting-woman 
and  the  cunning  of  another.”  2 

560.  Dr.  Sacheverell  (1710).  —  An  incident  occurred  about 
this  time  which  greatly  helped  the  Tories  (§  531)  in  their  schemes. 

1  For  years  the  Queen  and  the  duchess  carried  on  an  almost  daily  correspondence 
under  the  names  of  “  Mrs.  Morley  ”  (the  Queen)  and  “  Mrs.  Freeman  ”  (the  duchess), 
the  latter  taking  that  name  because,  as  she  boasted,  it  suited  the  frank  and  bold 
character  of  her  letters.  2  Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  England. 


302  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1702-1714 


Now  that  the  danger  was  over,  England  was  growing  weary  of  the 
continuance  of  a  war  which  involved  a  constant  drain  of  both  men 
and  money.  Dr.  Sacheverell,  a  violent  Tory  and  High  Church¬ 
man  (§  556),  began  preaching  a  series  of  sermons  in  London 
condemning  the  war,  and  the  Whigs  who  were  carrying  it  on. 

He  also  endeavored  to  revive  the  exploded  theory  of  the  Divine 
Right  of  Kings  (§§  471,  481),  and  declared  that  no  tyranny  on 
the  part  of  a  sovereign  could  by  any  possibility  justify  a  subject 
in  resisting  the  royal  will,  with  much  more  foolish  talk  of  the  same 
kind,  all  of  which  he  published.  The  Whig  leaders  unwisely 
brought  the  preacher  to  trial  for  alleged  treasonable  utterances 
(ryio).  He  was  suspended  from  his  office  for  three  years,  and 
his  book  of  sermons  was  publicly  burned  by  the  common  hangman. 

This  created  intense  popular  excitement ;  Sacheverell  was 
regarded  as  a  political  martyr  by  all  who  wished  the  war  ended. 
A  reaction  against  the  Government  set  in;  the  Whigs  (§  531) 
were  driven  from  power,  and  the  Tories  passed  two  very  harsh 
laws1  against  Dissenters  (§  524),  though  they  were  repealed  a  few 
years  later.  The  Duchess  of  Marlborough  now  had  to  leave  her 
apartments  in  the  palace  of  St.  James,  and  in  her  spite  broke  down 
marble  mantels  and  tore  off  the  locks  from  doors.  Mrs.  Masham’s 
friends,  the  Tories  (§  531),  or  peace  party,  who  had  now 
triumphed,  prepared  to  put  an  end  to  the  fighting. 

561.  The  Peace  of  Utrecht2  (1713).  —  Not  long  after  this 
change  a  messenger  was  privately  despatched  to  Louis  XIV  to 
ask  if  he  wished  for  peace.  “  It  was,”  says  the  French  minister, 
“  like  asking  a  dying  man  whether  he  would  wish  to  be  cured.”  8 
Later,  terms  were  agreed  upon  between  the  Tories  (§  531)  and 
the  French,  though  without  the  knowledge  of  the  English  people 
or  their  allies;  but  finally,  in  1713,  in  the  quaint  Dutch  city  of 
Utrecht,  the  allies,  together  with  France  and  Spain,  signed  the 
treaty  bearing  that  name. 

By  it  Louis  XIV  bound  himself:  1.  To  acknowledge  the 
Protestant  succession  in  England.  2.  To  compel  the  so-called 

1  These  were  the  Occasional  Conformity  Act  (1711)  and  the  Schism  Act  (1714). 
See  page  308,  §  567.  2  Utrecht  (U'trekt).  3  Morris,  The  Age  of  Anne. 


1702-1714]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  303 


“Pretender”  (§§  543,  557)  to  quit  France.  3.  To  renounce  the 
union  of  the  crowns  of  France  and  Spain  ;  but  Philip  was  to  retain 
the  Spanish  throne  (§  557).  4.  To  cede  to  England  all  claims  to 

Newfoundland,  Acadia,  or  Nova  Scotia,  and  that  vast  region  known 
as  the  Hudson  Bay  Company’s  Possessions. 

Next,  Spain  was  to  give  up:  1.  The  Spanish  Netherlands  to 
Austria,  an  ally  of  Holland,  and  grant  to  the  Dutch  a  line  of  forts 
to  defend  their  frontier  against  France.  2.  England  was  to  have 
the  exclusive  right  for  thirty-three  years  of  supplying  the  Spanish- 
American  colonists  with  negro  slaves.1 

This  trade  had  long  been  coveted  by  the  English,  and  had 
been  carried  on  to  some  extent  by  them  ever  since  Sir  John 
Hawkins  grew  so  rich  through  it  in  Queen  Elizabeth’s  time  that 
he  set  up  a  coat  of  arms  emblazoned  with  a  slave  in  fetters,  that 
all  might  see  how  he  had  won  wealth  and  distinction. 

562.  Union  of  England  and  Scotland,  1707.  —  Since  the  acces¬ 
sion  of  James  I,  England  and  Scotland  had  been  ruled  by  one 
sovereign,  but  each  country  retained  its  own  Parliament  and  its 
own  forms  of  worship.  In  1707  the  two  countries  were  united 
under  the  name  of  Great  Britain. 

The  Established  (Presbyterian)  Church  of  Scotland  and  the 
Scottish  laws  were  to  be  preserved.  The  independent  Parliament 
of  Scotland  was  given  up,  and  the  Scotch  were  henceforth  repre¬ 
sented  in  the  English  Parliament  by  sixteen  peers  chosen  by 
members  of  the  Scottish  peerage  at  the  summoning  of  every 
Parliament ;  and  by  forty-five  (now  sixty)  members  returned  by 
Scotland  to  the  House  of  Commons. 

With  the  consummation  of  the  union  Great  Britain  adopted  a 
new  flag,  the  Union  Jack,  which  was  formed  by  the  junction  of 
the  red  cross  of  St.  George  and  the  white  cross  of  St.  Andrew.2 

1  This  right  (called  the  “  Assiento,”  or  Contract)  had  formerly  belonged  to  France. 
By  its  transfer  England  got  the  privilege  of  furnishing  4S00  “sound,  merchantable 
negroes  ”  annually  ;  “  two-thirds  to  be  males  ”  between  ten  and  forty  years  of  age. 

2  St.  George :  the  patron  saint  of  England.  St.  Andrew :  the  patron  saint  of 
Scotland.  After  Ireland  was  united  to  Great  Britain  (1800),  the  red  cross  of  St. 
Patrick  was  added  to  the  flag  (1801).  Jack:  from  Jacques  (French  for  James), 
James  I’s  usual  signature.  The  first  union  flag  was  his  work. 


304  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1702-1714 


563.  Literature  of  the  Period;  the  First  Daily  Paper. — The 

reign  of  Anne  has  been  characterized  as  one  of  corruption  in  high 
places  and  of  brutality  in  low,  but  in  literature  it  takes  rank  next 
to  that  of  Elizabeth.  There  was  indeed  no  great  central  lumi¬ 
nary  like  Shakespeare,  but  a  constellation  of  lesser  ones,  —  such  as 
Addison,  Defoe,  and  Pope.  They  shone  with  a  mild  splendor 
peculiarly  their  own.  The  lurid  brilliancy  of  the  half-mad  satirist 
Dean  Swift  was  beginning  to  command  attention ;  he  wras  the 
greatest  political  writer  of  the  times ;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
calm,  clear  light  of  the  philosopher  John  Locke  was  near  its 
setting. 

Aside  from  these  great  names  in  letters,  it  wTas  an  age  generally 
of  contented  dulness,  well  represented  in  the  good-natured  medi¬ 
ocrity  of  Queen  Anne  herself.  During  her  reign  the  first  daily 
newspaper  (§§474,  495)  appeared  in  England,  —  the  Daily 
Courant  (1703)  ;  it  was  a  dingy,  badly  printed  little  sheet,  not 
much  bigger  than  a  man’s  hand.  The  publisher  said  he  made  it 
so  small  “  to  save  the  Publick  at  least  one-half  the  Impertinences 
of  Ordinary  News-Papers.” 

Perhaps  it  was  wrell  this  journal  made  no  greater  pretensions ; 
for  it  had  to  compete  with  swarms  of  abusive  political  pamphlets, 
such  as  Swift  wrote  for  the  Tories  and  Defoe  for  the  Whigs 
(§  531).  It  had  also  to  compete  with  the  gossip  and  scandal 
of  the  coffee-houses  and  the  clubs ;  for  this  reason  the  proprietor 
found  it  no  easy  matter  either  to  fill  it  or  to  sell  it. 

A  few  years  later  ( 1 7 1 1 )  a  new  journal  appeared,  of  a  very 
different  kind,  called  the  Spectator,  w’hich  Addison,  its  chief  con¬ 
tributor,  soon  made  famous.  Each  number  consisted  of  an  essay 
hitting  off  the  follies  and  foibles  of  the  age,  and  it  was  regularly 
served  at  the  breakfast-tables  of  people  of  fashion  along  with  their 
tea  and  toast. 

One  of  its  greatest  merits  wras  its  happy  way  of  showing  that 
wit  and  virtue  are  after  all  better  friends  than  wit  and  vice.  These 
two  dissimilar  sheets,  neither  of  w’hich  dared  to  publish  a  single 
line  of  parliamentary  debate,  mark  the  humble  beginning  of  that 
vast  organized  power,  represented  by  the  daily  press  of  London, 


1702-1714]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  305 


which  discusses  everything  of  note  or  interest  throughout  the 
world. 

564.  Death  of  the  Queen.  —  The  ingratitude  of  public  men 
and  the  furious  quarrels  of  politicians  so  teased  and  vexed  the 
Queen  that  she  at  last  fell  into  a  fatal  illness.  But  she  was  not 
prayed  for  even  in  her  own  private  chapel  at  St.  James’  Palace, 
and  the  report  that  she  had  breathed  her  last  sent  up  the  price 
of  stocks  at  the  Exchange.  Her  physician  wrote  to  Swift,  “  I 
believe  sleep  was  never  more  welcome  to  a  weary  traveller  than 
death  was  to  her.”  When  she  laid  down  the  sceptre  (1714)  the 
power  of  the  Stuarts  (§  467)  came  to  an  end.  She  left  no 
heir  to  the  throne,  for  all  of  her  children  had  died  in  infancy, 
except  one  unfortunate,  sickly  son  who  lived  just  long  enough 
to  awaken  hopes  which  were  buried  with  him.  According  to 
the  terms  of  the  Act  of  Settlement  (§  549)  the  crown  now 
passed  to  George,  Elector  of  Hanover,  a  Protestant  descend¬ 
ant  of  James  I  of  England.  James  Edward,  son  of  James  II, 
believed  to  the  last  that  his  half-sister,  the  Queen,  would  name 
him  her  successor  ; 1  instead  of  that  it  was  she  who  first  dubbed 
him  the  “Pretender”  (§§  542,  543,  557). 

565.  Summary.  — The  whole  reign  of  Anne  was  taken  up  with 
the  strife  of  political  parties  at  home,  and  the  War  of  the  Spanish 
Succession  abroad.  The  Whigs  (§  531)  were  always  intriguing 
through  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough  and  other  leaders  to  keep 
up  the  war  and  to  keep  out  the  so-called  “  Pretender  ” ;  the 
Tories  (§531),  on  the  other  hand,  were  just  as  busy  through 
Mrs.  Masham  and  her  coadjutors  in  endeavoring  to  establish 
peace,  and  with  it  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings. 

The  extremists  among  them  hoped  for  the  restoration  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Stuarts  in  the  person  of  James  Edward.  The 
result  of  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  was  the  defeat  of 
Louis  XIV  and  the  confirmation  of  that  Act  of  Settlement  which 
secured  the  English  crown  to  a  Protestant  prince. 

1  Anne  and  the  so-called  “Pretender”  were  children  of  James  II  by  different 
mothers. 


30 6  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1603-1714 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  STUART  PERIOD 
1603-1649  (Commonwealth,  1649-1660) ;  1660-1714 

I.  GOVERNMENT. -  II.  RELIGION. -  III.  MILITARY  AFFAIRS. - 

IV.  LITERATURE,  LEARNING,  AND  ART. - V.  GENERAL  INDUS¬ 
TRY  AND  COMMERCE. - VI.  MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND 

CUSTOMS. 

GOVERNMENT 

566.  Divine  Right  of  Kings ;  the  Civil  War ;  the  Revolution  of 
1688.  —  The  period  began  with  the  attempt  of  James  I  to  carry  out 
his  theory  that  the  king  derives  his  right  to  rule  directly  from  God, 
and  in  no  wise  from  the  people.  Charles  I  adopted  this  disastrous 
theory,  and  was  supported  in  it  by  Manwaring  and  other  clergymen, 
who  declared  that  the  king  represents  God  on  earth,  and  that  the 
subject  who  resists  his  will,  or  refuses  a  tax  or  loan  to  him,  does  so 
at  the  everlasting  peril  of  his  soul. 

Charles’  arbitrary  methods  of  government  and  levies  of  illegal 
taxes,  with  the  imprisonment  of  those  who  refused  to  pay  them,  led 
to  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament  and  the  enactment  in  1628 
of  the  statute  of  the  Petition  of  Right,  or  second  great  charter  of 
English  liberties. 

The  same  Parliament  abolished  the  despotic  courts  of  Star-Chamber 
and  High  Commission,  which  had  been  used  by  Strafford  and  Laud 
to  carry  out  their  tyrannical  scheme  called  “  Thorough.” 

Charles’  renewed  acts  of  oppression  and  open  violation  of  the  laws, 
with  his  levies  of  Ship  Money,  led  to  the  Grand  Remonstrance,  an 
appeal  to  the  nation  to  support  Parliament  in  its  struggle  with  the 
King.  The  attempt  of  the  King  to  arrest  five  members  who  had 
taken  a  prominent  part  in  drawing  up  the  Remonstrance  brought  on 
the  Civil  War  and  the  establishment  of  a  Republic  which  declared, 
in  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings,  that  “  the 
people  are,  under  God,  the  origin  of  all  just  power.”  Eventually, 
Cromwell  became  Protector  of  the  nation,  and  ruled  by  means  of  a 
strong  military  power. 

On  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts,  Feudal  Tenure  and  the  Right  of 
Purveyance  were  abolished  by  Parliament  (1660).  Charles  1 1  endeav¬ 
ored  to  rule  without  Parliament  by  selling  his  influence  to  Louis  XIV, 


1603-1714]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  307 


by  the  secret  Treaty  of  Dover.  During  his  reign,  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  was  passed,  and  feudalism  practically  abolished. 

James  II  endeavored  to  restore  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  His 
treatment  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  and  imprisonment  of  the  Seven 
Bishops,  with  the  birth  of  a  son  who  would  be  educated  as  a  Roman 
Catholic,  caused  the  Revolution  of  1688,  and  placed  William  and 
Mary  on  the  throne. 

Parliament  now,  1689,  passed  the  Bill  of  Rights,  the  third  great 
charter  for  the  protection  of  the  English  people,  and  later  confirmed  it, 
[701,  by  the  Act  of  Settlement,  which  secured  the  crown  to  a  line  of 
Protestant  sovereigns.  The  Mutiny  Bill,  passed  at  the  beginning  of 
William  Ill’s  reign,  made  the  army  dependent  on  Parliament.  These 
measures  practically  put  the  government  in  the  hands  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  where  it  has  ever  since  remained.  The  Long  Parlia¬ 
ment  had  passed  a  Triennial  Act  (1641)  requiring  a  new  Parliament 
to  be  summoned  within  three  years  from  the  dissolution  of  the  last 
Parliament,  which  was  to  sit  not  longer  than  three  years.  This 
law  was  repealed  in  1664  and  reenacted  under  William  1 1 1  in  1694. 
William’s  war  caused  the  beginning  of  the  National  Debt  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Bank  of  England. 

In  the  reign  of  Anne,  1707,  Scotland  and  England  were  united 
under  the  name  of  Great  Britain.  During  her  sovereignty  the  Whig 
and  Tory  parties,  which  came  into  existence  in  the  time  of  Charles  II, 
became  especially  prominent,  and  they  have  since  (though  lately 
under  the  name  of  Liberals  and  Conservatives)  continued  to  divide 
the  parliamentary  government  between  them,  —  the  Whigs  seeking 
to  extend  the  power  of  the  people  ;  the  Tories,  that  of  the  Crown  and 
the  Church. 

RELIGION 

567.  Religious  Parties  and  Religious  Legislation.  —  At  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  this  period  we  find  four  religious  parties  in  England  :  1.  The 
Roman  Catholics.  2.  The  Episcopalians,  or  supporters  of  the  Na¬ 
tional  Church  of  England.  3.  The  Puritans,  who  were  seeking  to 
“  purify  ”  the  Church  from  certain  Roman  Catholic  customs  and 
modes  of  worship.  4.  The  Independents,  who  were  endeavoring 
to  establish  independent  congregational  societies.  In  Scotland  the 
Puritans  established  their  religion  in  a  Church  governed  by  elders,  or 
presbyters,  instead  of  bishops,  which  on  that  account  got  the  name 
of  Presbyterian. 


308  leading  facts  of  English  history  [1603-1714 


James  I  persecuted  all  who  dissented  from  the  Church  of  England  ; 
and  after  the  Gunpowder  Plot  the  Roman  Catholics  were  practically 
deprived  of  the  protection  of  the  law,  and  subject  to  terrible  oppres¬ 
sion.  In  James’  reign  Bartholomew  Legate,  a  Unitarian,  was  burned 
at  West  Smithfield  Market,  London  (1612),  for  denying  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity.  He  was  the  last  English  martyr.  Charles  I  greatly 
exasperated  the  Puritans  in  the  English  Church  by  his  Declaration  of 
Sports,  which  recommended  games  in  the  churchyards  after  service 
on  Sunday.  Clergymen  who  refused  to  read  the  Declaration  to  their 
congregations  were  dismissed  from  their  places. 

During  the  period  of  the  Civil  War  and  the  Commonwealth, 
Presbyterianism  was  established  as  the  national  worship  of  England 
and  Scotland  by  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  A  great  many 
Episcopal  clergymen  were  deprived  of  their  parishes.  At  the 
Restoration  severe  laws  against  the  Scotch  Covenanters  and  other 
Dissenters  were  enforced,  and  retaliatory  legislation  drove  two  thou¬ 
sand  clergymen  from  their  parishes  to  starve  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
the  pretended  Popish  Plot  caused  the  exclusion  of  Roman  Catholics 
from  both  houses  of  Parliament,  and  all  persons  holding  office  were 
obliged  to  partake  of  the  sacrament  according  to  the  Church  of 
England.  James  II’s  futile  attempt  to  restore  Catholicism  ended  in 
the  Revolution  and  the  passage  of  the  Toleration  Act,  granting 
liberty  of  worship  to  all  Protestant  Trinitarians.  Stringent  laws 
were  passed  against  Catholics  (1700);  but  they  were  not  regularly 
enforced.  Under  Anne  the  Occasional  Conformity  Act  ( 1 7 1 1 )  and 
the  Schism  Act  (1714)  were  aimed  at  Dissenters,  but  they  were 
repealed  a  few  years  later  (1718). 

MILITARY  AFFAIRS 

568.  Armor  and  Arms.  — ■  Armor  still  continued  to  be  worn  in 
some  degree  during  this  period,  but  it  consisted  chiefly  of  the  helmet 
with  breast-plates  and  back-plates.  Firearms  of  various  kinds  were 
in  general  use ;  also  hand-grenades,  or  small  bombs,  and  the  bayonet. 
The  chief  wars  of  the  period  were  the  Civil  War,  the  wars  with 
the  Dutch,  William’s  war  with  France,  and  that  of  the  Spanish 
Succession. 

LEARNING,  LITERATURE,  AND  ART 

569.  Great  Writers.  —  The  most  eminent  prose  writers  of  this 
period  were  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  Lord  Bacon,  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 


1603-1714]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  309 


John  Bunyan,  Jeremy  Taylor,  John  Locke,  Hobbes,  Dean  Swift, 
Defoe,  and  Addison;  the  chief  poets,  Shakespeare  and  Jonson  (men¬ 
tioned  under  the  preceding  period),  Milton,  Dryden,  Pope,  Butler,  and 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  with  a  class  of  writers  known  as  the  “  Comic 
Dramatists  of  the  Restoration,”  whose  works,  though  not  lacking 
in  genius,  exhibit  many  of  the  worst  features  of  the  licentious  age  in 
which  they  were  produced.  Three  other  great  writers  were  born 
in  the  latter  part  of  this  period,  —  Fielding,  the  novelist,  Hume,  the 
historian,  and  Butler,1  the  ablest  thinker  of  his  time  in  the  English 
Church,  —  but  th'eir  productions  belong  to  the  time  of  the  Georges. 

570.  Progress  in  Science  and  Invention.  —  Sir  Isaac  Newton  revo¬ 
lutionized  natural  philosophy  by  his  discovery  and  demonstration 
of  the  law  of  gravitation,  and  Dr.  William  Harvey  accomplished  as 
great  a  change  in  physiological  science  by  his  discovery  of  the  circu¬ 
lation  of  the  blood.  The  most  remarkable  invention  of  the  age  was 
a  rude  steam  engine,  patented  in  1698  by  Captain  Savery,  and  so 
far  improved  by  Thomas  Newcomen  in  1712  that  it  was  used  for 
pumping  water  in  coal  mines  for  many  years.  Both  were  destined 
to  be  superseded  by  James  Watt’s  engine,  which  belongs  to  a  later 
period  (1765). 

571.  Architecture. — The  Gothic  style  of  the  preceding  periods 
was  followed  by  the  Italian,  or  classical,  represented  in  the  works  of 
Inigo  Jones  and  Sir  Christopher  Wren.  It  was  a  revival,  in  modi¬ 
fied  form,  of  the  ancient  Greek  and  Roman  architecture.  St.  Paul’s 
Cathedral,  the  grandest  church  ever  built  in  England  for  Protestant 
worship,  is  the  best  example  of  this  style.  Many  beautiful  manor- 
houses  were  built  in  the  early  part  of  this  period,  which,  like  the 
churches  of  the  time,  are  often  ornamented  with  the  exquisite  wood¬ 
carving  of  Grinling  Gibbons.  There  were  no  great  artists  in  England 
in  this  age,  though  Charles  I  employed  Rubens  and  other  foreign 
painters  to  decorate  the  palace  of  Whitehall  and  Windsor  Castle. 

572.  Education.  —  The  higher  education  of  the  period  was  con¬ 
fined  almost  wholly  to  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek.  The  discipline 
of  all  schools  was  extremely  harsh.  Nearly  every  lesson  was  empha¬ 
sized  by  a  liberal  application  of  the  rod,  and  the  highest  recom¬ 
mendation  a  teacher  could  have  was  that  he  was  known  as  “  a  learned 
and  lashing  master.” 

1  Bishop  Butler,  author  of  The  Analogy  of  Religion  (1736),  a  work  which 
gained  for  him  the  title  of  “  The  Bacon  of  Theology.” 


310  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1603-1714 


GENERAL  INDUSTRY  AND  COMMERCE 

573.  Manufactures.  —  Woollen  goods  continued  to  be  a  chief 
article  of  manufacture.  Silks  were  also  produced  by  thousands  of 
Huguenot  weavers,  who  fled  from  France  to  escape  the  persecutions 
of  Louis  XIV.  Coal  was  now  extensively  mined,  and  iron  and  pot¬ 
tery  works  were  giving  industrial  importance  to  Birmingham  and  other 
growing  towns  in  the  midlands. 

574.  Commerce.  —  A  permanent  English  colony  was  established 
in  America  in  1607,  and  by  1714  the  number  of  such  colonies  had 
increased  to  twelve.  During  a  great  part  of  this  period  intense  com¬ 
mercial  rivalry  existed  between  England  and  Holland,  each  of  which 
was  anxious  to  get  the  monopoly  of  the  colonial  import  and  export 
trade.  Parliament  passed  stringent  navigation  laws,  under  Cromwell 
and  later,  to  prevent  the  Dutch  from  competing  with  English  mer¬ 
chants  and  shippers.  The  East  India  and  South  Sea  companies 
were  means  of  greatly  extending  English  commercial  enterprise,  as 
was  also  the  tobacco  culture  of  Virginia. 

575.  Roads  and  Travel.  —  Good  roads  were  still  unknown  in  Eng¬ 
land.  Stage  coaches  carried  a  few  passengers  at  exorbitant  rates, 
requiring  an  entire  day  to  go  a  distance  which  an  express  train  now 
travels  in  less  than  an  hour.  Goods  were  carried  on  pack-horses  or 
in  cumbrous  wagons,  and  so  great  was  the  expense  of  transportation 
that  farmers  often  let  their  produce  rot  on  the  ground  rather  than 
attempt  to  get  it  to  the  nearest  market  town. 

In  London  a  few  coaches  were  in  use,  but  covered  chairs,  carried 
on  poles  by  two  men  and  called  “  sedan  chairs,”  were  the  favorite 
vehicles.  Although  London  had  been  in  great  part  rebuilt  since  the 
fire  of  1666,  the  streets  were  still  very  narrow,  without  sidewalks, 
heaped  with  filth,  and  miserably  lighted. 

576.  Agriculture ;  Pauperism.  —  Agriculture  generally  made  no 
marked  improvement,  but  gardening  did,  and  many  vegetables  and 
fruits  were  introduced  which  had  not  before  been  cultivated. 

Pauperism  remained  a  problem  which  the  Government  had  not  yet 
found  a  practical  method  of  dealing  with.  There  was  little  freedom 
of  movement  ;  the  poor  man’s  parish  was  virtually  his  prison,  and  if 
he  left  it  to  seek  work  elsewhere,  and  required  help  on  the  way,  he 
was  certain  to  be  sent  back  to  the  place  where  he  was  legally  settled. 


1603-1714]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE  3 1  I 


MODE  OF  LIFE,  MANNERS,  AND  CUSTOMS 

577.  Dress.  —  In  the  time  of  Charles  II  and  his  successors  the 
dress  of  the  wealthy  and  fashionable  classes  was  most  elaborate  and 
costly.  Gentlemen  wore  their  hair  long,  in  ringlets,  with  an  abun¬ 
dance  of  gold  lace  and  ruffles,  and  carried  long,  slender  swords, 
known  as  rapiers.  Later,  wigs  came  into  use,  and  no  man  of  any 
social  standing  thought  of  appearing  without  one. 

In  Queen  Anne’s  reign  ladies  painted  their  faces  and  ornamented 
them  with  minute  black  patches,  which  served  not  only  for  “  beauty 
spots,”  but  also  showed,  by  their  arrangement,  with  which  political 
party  they  sympathized. 

578.  Coffee-Houses.  —  Up  to  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  cen¬ 
tury  ale  and  beer  were  the  common  drink  of  all  classes  ;  but  about 
that  time  coffee  was  introduced,  and  coffee-houses  became  a  fash¬ 
ionable  resort  for  gentlemen  and  for  all  who  wished  to  learn  the 
news  of  the  day.  Tea  had  not  yet  come  into  use  ;  but,  in  1660, 
Pepys  says  in  his  diary  :  “  Sept.  25.  I  did  send  for  a  cup  of  tee 
(a  China  drink)  of  which  I  never  had  drank  before.” 

579.  The  Streets  of  London.  ■ —  No  efficient  police  existed  in 
London,  and  at  night  the  streets  were  infested  with  brutal  ruffians  ; 
and  as  late  as  Queen  Anne’s  time,  by  bands  of  “  fine  gentlemen  ” 
not  less  brutal,  who  amused  themselves  by  overturning  sedan  chairs, 
rolling  women  down  hill  in  barrels,  and  compelling  men  to  dance 
jigs,  under  the  stimulus  of  repeated  pricks  from  a  circle  of  sword 
points,  until  they  fell  fainting  from  exhaustion.  Duels  were  frequent, 
on  the  slightest  provocation.  Highwaymen  abounded  both  in  the 
city  and  without,  and  it  was  dangerous  to  travel  any  distance,  even 
by  day,  without  an  armed  guard. 

580.  Brutal  Laws.  —  Hanging  was  the  common  punishment  for 
theft  and  many  other  crimes.  The  public  whipping  of  both  men 
and  women  through  the  streets  was  frequent.  Debtors  were  shut 
up  in  prison,  and  left  to  beg  from  the  passers-by  or  starve  ;  and 
ordinary  offenders  were  fastened  in  a  wooden  frame  called  the 
“pillory”  and  exposed  on  a  stage,  where  they  were  pelted  by  the 
mob,  and  their  bones  not  infrequently  broken  with  clubs  and  brick¬ 
bats.  The  pillory  continued  in  use  until  the  accession  of  Victoria 
in  1837. 


312  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1714-1727 


SECTION  X 

“  The  history  of  England  is  emphatically  the  history  of  progress.  It 
is  the  history  of  a  constant  movement  of  the  public  mind,  of  a  constant 
change  in  the  institutions  of  a  great  society.”  —  Macaulay. 


INDIA  GAINED;  AMERICA  LOST  —  PARLIAMENTARY 

REFORM  —  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 

The  House  of  Hanover  (1714)  to  the  Present  Time 

George  I,  1714-1727.  George  IV,  1820-1830. 

George  II,  1727-1760.  William  IV,  1830-1837. 

George  III,  1760-1820.  Victoria,  1S37-1901. 

Edward  VII,  1901- 

581.  Accession  of  George  I. — As  Queen  Anne  died  without 
leaving  an  heir  to  the  throne,  George,  Elector  of  Hanover,  in 
accordance  with  the  Act  of  Settlement  (§  549),  now  came  into 
possession  of  the  English  crown.  (See  genealogical  table  on 
opposite  page.)  The  new  King,  however,  was  in  no  haste  to 
leave  the  quiet  little  German  court  where  he  had  passed  his  fifty- 
fourth  birthday,  and  where  he  would  have  gladly  spent  the  rest 
of  his  uneventful  life. 

As  he  owed  his  new  position  to  Whig  legislation  (§531),  he 
naturally  favored  that  party  and  turned  his  back  on  the  Tories 
(§  5  3 1 ) ,  who,  deprived  of  the  sunshine  of  royal  favor,  were  as 
unhappy  as  their  rivals  were  jubilant.  The  triumphant  Whigs 
denounced  “the  shameful  Peace  of  Utrecht”  (§561).  Next, 
they  impeached  the  three  fallen  Tory  leaders,1  of  whom  Harley 

1  The  three  Tory  leaders  were:  Harley,  now  Earl  of  Oxford  (§559),  St.  John 
(Viscount  Bolingbroke),  and  Butler  (Duke  of  Ormonde).  Bolingbroke  and  Ormonde 
fled  to  France,  where  the  first  entered  the  service  of  the  “Pretender,”  but  he  was 
ultimately  permitted  to  return  to  England.  Ormonde  never  came  back.  Harley, 
as  stated  above,  was  sent  to  the  Tower;  while  there  he  secretly  wrote  to  the 
“  Pretender,”  and  offered  him  his  services. 


BRIBING  A  VOTER 
(By  Hogarth) 


1714-1727]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


313 


was  the  chief  (§  559),  on  a  charge  of  treason.  The  indictment 
accused  them  of  having  given  up  more  places  to  Louis  XIV  in 
the  late  war  than  was  necessary.  Furthermore,  they  were  said  to 
be  guilty  of  having  intrigued  to  restore  the  house  of  Stuart  with 
the  design  of  making  the  “Pretender”  king  (§§  542,  543,  564). 
Harley  was  sent  to  the  Tower  of  London  for  a  time  ;  he  was  then 
acquitted  and  released.  Meanwhile  his  two  indicted  associates 
had  fled  to  France. 

Later,  the  Whigs  repealed  the  harsh  religious  statutes  (§  560) 1 
directed  against  Dissenters,  which  the  Tories  and  the  High 
Churchmen  had  enacted  in  the  previous  reign  for  the  purpose 
of  keeping  themselves  in  power. 

582.  Character  of  the  New  King. — The  new  sovereign  was 
a  selfish,  coarse  old  man,  who  in  private  life  would,  as  Lady 
Montagu  said,  have  passed  for  an  honest  blockhead.  He  neither 


1  The  Occasional  Conformity  and  the  Schism  acts,  repealed  1 71 7-1 719. 


The  House  of  Hanover,  also  called  Brunswick  and  Guelf 


James  (Stuart)  I  of  England 


Charles  II 


Mary,  m. 
William  III 
of  Orange, 
afterward  Wil¬ 
liam  1 1 1  of 
England 


Charles  I 

_ j _ 

James  II  Mary,  m.  Wil- 

I _  liam  1 1  of 

I  I  Orange 

Anne  James  (the 

“Old  Pretend-  William  III 
er”),  b.  1688,  of  Orange, 
d.  1765  became  Wil- 
|  liam  1 1 1  of 

Charles  (the  England,  1689 
“  Young  Pre¬ 
tender”),  b. 

1720,  d.  1788 


.  I 

Elizabeth,  m.  Frederick, 
Elector- Palatine,*  and 
later  King  of  Bohemia 

Sophia,  m.  the  Elector 
of  Hanover  t 

1 

George,  Elector  of 
Hanover,  became 
George  I  of  England,  1714 

George  II 

I 

Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales 
(died  before  coming  to  the 
throne) 


George  III 


George  IV  William  Edward, 


IV  Duke  of 
Kent,  d.  1820 


Victoria 


*  Elector-Palatine :  a  prince  ruling  over  the  territory  called  Edward  VII 

the  Palatinate  in  Western  Germany,  on  the  Rhine. 

t  Elector  of  Hanover  :  a  prince  ruling  over  the  province  of  Hanover,  a  part  of  the  German 
Empire,  lying  on  the  North  Sea.  The  elector  received  his  title  from  the  fact  that  he  was  one 
of  a  certain  number  of  princes  who  had  the  right  of  electing  the  German  emperor. 


314  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1714-1727 

knew  anything  about  England,  nor  did  he  desire  to  know  any¬ 
thing  of  it.  He  could  not  speak  a  word  of  the  language  of  the 
country  he  was  called  to  govern,  and  he  made  no  attempt  to  learn 
it ;  even  the  coronation  service  had  to  be  explained  to  him  as  best 
it  could,  in  such  broken  Latin  as  the  ministers  could  muster. 

Laboring  under  these  disadvantages,  his  majesty  wisely  deter¬ 
mined  not  to  try  to  take  any  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
nation.  He  was  a  hearty  eater  and  drinker,  so  that  his  table 
exercises  took  up  a  considerable  portion  of  his  time.  Much  of 
the  rest  he  was  contented  to  spend  quietly  smoking  his  pipe,  or 
playing  cards  and  laughing  at  the  caricature  pictures  of  the  Eng¬ 
lish  which  the  German  ladies  of  his  court  cut  out  of  paper  for 
his  amusement.  As  for  politics,  he  let  his  Whig  friends  (§531), 
with  Sir  Robert  Walpole  at  the  head,  manage  the  country  in  their 
own  way. 

Fortunately,  the  great  body  of  the  English  people  were  abun¬ 
dantly  able  to  take  care  of  themselves.  Voltaire  said  of  them  that 
they  resembled  a  barrel  of  their  own  beer,  froth  at  the  top,  dregs 
at  the  bottom,  but  thoroughly  sound  and  wholesome  in  the  middle. 
It  was  this  middle  class,  with  their  solid,  practical  good  sense, 
that  kept  the  nation  right. 

They  were  by  no  means  enthusiastic  worshippers  of  the  German 
King  who  had  come  to  reign  over  them,  but  they  saw  that  he  had 
three  good  qualities  :  he  was  no  hypocrite,  he  did  not  waste  the 
people’s  money,  and  he  was  a  man  of  unquestioned  courage.  But 
they  saw  more  than  this,  for  they  realized  that  though  George  I 
might  be  as  heavy,  dull,  and  wooden  as  the  figure-head  of  a 
ship,  yet,  like  that  figure-head,  he  stood  for  something  greater 
and  better  than  himself,  —  for  he  represented  Protestantism,  with 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  —  and  so  the  people  gave  him  their 
allegiance. 

583.  Cabinet  Government ;  Robert  Walpole,  the  First  Prime 
Minister.  —  The  present  method  of  government  dates  in  great 
part  from  this  reign.  From  the  earliest  period  of  English  history 
the  sovereign  was  accustomed  to  have  a  permanent  council  com¬ 
posed  of  some  of  the  chief  men  of  the  realm,  whom  he  consulted 


1714-1727]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


315 


on  all  matters  of  importance  (§§  194,  195).  Charles  II,  because 
he  found  this  body  inconveniently  large  for  the  rapid  transaction  of 
business,  or  because  he  believed  it  inexpedient  to  discuss  his  plans 
with  so  many,  selected  a  small  confidential  committee  from  it.  This 
committee  met  to  consult  with  the  King  in  his  cabinet,  or  private 
room,  and  so  came  to  be  called  “  the  cabinet  council,”  or  briefly 
“  the  Cabinet,”  a  name  which  it  has  ever  since  retained. 

During  Charles  II’s  reign  and  that  of  his  immediate  successors 
the  King  continued  to  choose  this  special  council  from  those 
whom  he  believed  to  be  friendly  to  his  measures,  often  without 
much  regard  to  party  lines,  and  he  was  always  present  at  their 
meetings.  With  the  accession  of  George  I,  however,  a  great 
change  took  place.  His  want  of  acquaintance  with  prominent 
men  made  it  difficult  for  him  to  select  a  Cabinet  himself,  and  his 
ignorance  of  English  rendered  his  presence  at  its  meetings  wholly 
useless.  For  these  reasons  the  new  King  adopted  the  expe¬ 
dient  of  appointing  a  chief  adviser,  or  Prime  Minister,  who  chose 
his  own  Cabinet  from  men  of  the  political  party  to  which  he 
belonged. 

Thus  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  the  first  Prime  Minister  (1721), 
began  that  system  (though  not  until  the  reign  was  far  advanced) 
by  which  the  executive  affairs  of  the  Government  are  managed 
to-day.  The  Cabinet,  or  “  the  Government,”  as  it  is  sometimes 
called,  now  generally  consists  of  twelve  or  fifteen  persons  chosen 
by  the  Prime  Minister,  or  Premier,1  from  the  leading  members  of 
both  houses  of  Parliament,  but  whose  political  views  agree  in  the 
main  with  the  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons.2 


1  Now  generally  called  the  “  Premier  ”  (from  the  French  premier,  first  or  chief). 

2  The  existence  of  the  Cabinet  depends  on  custom,  not  law.  Its  members  are 
never  officially  made  known  to  the  public,  nor  its  proceedings  recorded.  Its  meet¬ 
ings,  which  take  place  at  irregular  intervals,  according  to  pressure  of  business,  are 
entirely  secret,  and  the  sovereign  is  never  present.  As  the  Cabinet  agrees  in  its 
composition  with  the  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons,  it  follows  that  if  the 
Commons  are  Conservative,  the  Cabinet  will  be  so  likewise;  and  if  Liberal,  the 
reverse.  Theoretically,  the  sovereign  chooses  the  Cabinet ;  but  practically  the  selec¬ 
tion  is  now  always  made  by  the  Prime  Minister.  If  at  any  time  the  Prime  Minister, 
with  his  Cabinet,  finds  that  his  political  policy  no  longer  agrees  with  that  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  he  and  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet  resign,  and  the 


316  leading  facts  of  English  history  [1714-1727 


This  system,  though  not  fully  developed  until  the  reign  of 
George  III,  had  become  so  well  established  when  George  II 
came  to  the  throne,  that  he  said,  “  In  England  the  ministers  are 
king.”  If  he  could  have  looked  forward,  he  would  have  seen 
that  the  time  was  coming  when  the  House  of  Commons  would  be 
king,  since  no  ministry  or  Cabinet  can  now  stand  which  does  not 
have  the  confidence  and  support  of  the  Commons. 

584.  The  “Pretender”;  “The  Fifteen”  (1715);  the  Sep¬ 
tennial  Act  (1716).  — The  fact  that  George  I  exclusively  favored 
the  Whigs  exasperated  the  opposite,  or  Tory,  party.  The 
Jacobites  or  extreme  members  of  that  party  (§§  531,  547)  in 
Scotland,  with  the  secret  aid  of  many  in  England,  now  rose,  in 
the  hope  of  placing  on  the  throne  James  Edward  Stuart,  the  son 
of  James  II.  He  was  called  the  “  Chevalier  ”  1  by  his  friends,  but 
the  “Pretender”  by  his  enemies  (§§  542,  543,  557,  564). 
The  insurrection  was  led  by  John,  Earl  of  Mar,  who,  from  his 
frequent  change  of  politics,  had  got  the  nickname  of  “  Bobbing 
John.”  Mar  encountered  the  royal  forces  at  Sheriffmuir,  in 

sovereign  chooses  a  new  Prime  Minister  from  the  opposite  party,  who  forms  a  new 
Cabinet  in  harmony  with  himself  and  the  Commons.  If,  however,  the  Prime  Minister 
has  good  reason  for  believing  that  a  different  House  of  Commons  would  support  him, 
the  sovereign  may,  by  his  advice,  dissolve  Parliament.  A  new  election  then  takes 
place,  and  according  to  the  political  character  of  the  members  returned,  the  Cabinet 
remains  in,  or  goes  out  of.  power.  The  Cabinet  now  invariably  includes  the  following 
officers : — 

1.  The  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury 

(usually  the  Prime  Minister). 

2.  The  Lord  Chancellor. 

3.  The  Lord  President  of  the  Council. 

4.  The  Lord  Privy  Seal. 

5.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 

6.  The  Secretary  of  State  for  Home 

Affairs. 

In  addition,  a  certain  number  of  other  officers  of  the  Government  are  frequently 
included,  making  the  whole  number  about  twelve  or  fifteen. 

1  The  Chevalier  de  St.  George:  after  the  birth  of  his  son  Charles  in  1720,  the 
former  was  known  by  the  nickname  of  the  “  Old  Pretender,”  and  the  son  as  the 
“Young  Pretender.”  So  far  as  birth  could  entitle  them  to  the  crown,  they  held 
the  legal  right  of  succession;  but  the  Revolution  of  1688  and  the  Act  of  Settlement 
barred  them  out  (§549). 


7.  The  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign 

Affairs. 

8.  The  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colo¬ 

nies. 

9.  The  Secretary  of  State  for  India. 

10.  The  Secretary  of  State  for  War. 

11.  The  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 


1714-1727]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


317 


Perthshire,  Scotland  (1715),  where  an  indecisive  battle  was 
fought,  which  the  old  ballad  thus  describes  :  — - 

“  There ’s  some  say  that  we  won,  and  some  say  that  they  won, 
And  some  say  that  none  won  at  a’,  man ; 

But  one  thing  is  sure,  that  at  Sheriffmuir 
A  battle  there  was,  which  I  saw,  man.” 

On  the  same  day  of  the  fight  at  Sheriffmuir,  the  English 
Jacobites,  with  a  body  of  Scotch  allies,  marched  into  Preston, 
Lancashire,  and  there  surrendered,  almost  without  striking  a 
blow. 

The  leaders  of  the  movement,  except  the  Earl  of  Mar,  who, 
with  one  or  two  others,  escaped  to  the.  continent,  were  beheaded 
or  hanged,  and  about  a  thousand  of  the  rank  and  file  were  sold 
as  slaves  to  the  West  India  and  Virginia  plantations.  The 
“Pretender”  himself  landed  in  Scotland  a  few  weeks  after  the 
defeat  of  his  friends ;  but  finding  no  encouragement,  he  hurried 
back  to  the  continent  again.  Thus  ended  the  rebellion  known 
from  the  year  of  its  outbreak  (1715)  as  “The  Fifteen.” 

One  result  of  this  rising  was  the  passage  of  the  Septennial  Act 
(1716),  extending  the  duration  of  Parliament  from  three  years, 
which  was  the  longest  time  that  body  could  sit  (§§491,  566),  to 
seven  years,  a  law  still  in  force.1  The  object  of  this  change  was 
to  do  away  with  the  excitement  and  tendency  to  rebellion  at  that 
time,  resulting  from  frequent  elections,  in  which  party  feeling  ran 
to  dangerous  extremes. 

585.  The  South  Sea  Bubble  (1720).  —  A  few  years  later  a 
gigantic  enterprise  was  undertaken  by  the  South  Sea  Company, 
a  body  of  merchants,  originally  organized  as  a  company  trading 
in  the  southern  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans.  A  Scotchman 
named  Law  had  started  a  similar  project  in  France,  known  as  the 

1  The  Triennial  Act  (§§  491,  566)  provided  that  at  the  end  of  three  years  Parlia¬ 
ment  must  be  dissolved  and  a  new  election  held.  This  was  to  prevent  the  sovereign 
from  keeping  that  body  in  power  indefinitely,  contrary,  perhaps,  to  the  political  feel¬ 
ing  of  the  country,  which  might  prefer  a  different  set  of  representatives.  Under  the 
Septennial  Act  the  time  was  extended  four  years,  making  seven  in  all,  but  the 
sovereign  may,  of  course,  dissolve  Parliament  at  any  time  before  that  limit  is 
reached.  But  now  custom  reduces  the  longest  session  of  Parliament  to  six  years. 


3 1 8  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1714-1727 


“  Mississippi  Company,”  which  proposed  to  pay  off  the  national 
debt  of  France  from  the  profits  of  its  commerce  with  the  West 
Indies  and  the  country  bordering  on  the  Mississippi  River. 

Following  his  example,  the  South  Sea  Company  now  undertook 
to  pay  off  the  English  National  Debt  (§  552),  mainly,  it  is  said, 
from  the  profits  of  the  slave  trade  between  Africa  and  Brazil.1 
Walpole  had  no  faith  in  the  scheme,  and  attacked  it  vigorously ; 
but  other  influential  members  of  the  Government  gave  it  their 
encouragement.  The  directors  came  out  with  prospectuses 
promising  dividends  of  fifty  per  cent  on  all  money  invested. 
Everybody  rushed  to  buy  stock,  and  the  shares  rapidly  advanced 
from  jQ  1 00  to  jQ  1 000  a  share. 

A  speculative  craze  followed,  the  like  of  which  has  never  since 
been  known.  Bubble  companies  sprang  into  existence  with 
objects  almost  as  absurd  as  those  of  the  philosophers  whom 
Swift  ridiculed  in  “  Gulliver’s  Travels,”  where  one  man  was  trying 
to  make  gunpowder  out  of  ice,  and  another  to  extract  sunbeams 
from  cucumbers. 

A  mere  list  of  these  companies  would  fill  several  pages.  One 
was  to  give  instruction  in  astrology,  by  which  every  man  might 
be  able  to  foretell  his  own  destiny  by  examining  the  stars  3  a 
second  was  to  manufacture  butter  out  of  beech  trees ;  a  third 
was  for  a  wiieel  for  driving  machinery,  which  once  started  would 
go  on  forever,  thereby  furnishing  a  cheap  perpetual  motion. 

A  fourth  projector,  going  beyond  all  the  rest  in  audacity,  had 
the  impudence  to  offer  stock  for  sale  in  an  enterprise  “  which 
shall  be  revealed  hereafter.”  He  found  the  public  so  gullible  and 
so  greedy  for  gain  that  he  sold  ^2,000  wrorth  of  the  new 
stock  in  the  course  of  a  single  morning,  and  then  prudently 
disappeared  with  the  cash ;  but  the  unfortunate  investors  found 
that  w’here  he  went  with  their  money  was  not  among  the  things 
to  “be  revealed  hereafter.” 

The  narrow  passage  leading  to  the  stock  exchange  was 
crowded  all  day  long  with  struggling  fortune  hunters,  both  men 
and  women.  Suddenly,  wrhen  the  excitement  was  at  its  height, 
ILoftie’s  History  of  London ;  and  see  §  561. 


1714-1727]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


319 


the  bubble  burst,  as  Law’s  scheme  in  France  had  a  little 
earlier. 

Great  numbers  of  people  were  hopelessly  ruined,  and  the  cry 
for  vengeance  was  as  loud  as  the  bids  for  stocks  had  once  been. 
One  prominent  government  official  who  had  helped  to  blow 
the  bubble  was  sent  to  the  Tower.  Another  committed  suicide 
rather  than  face  a  parliamentary  committee  of  investigation,  one 
of  whose  members  had  suggested  that  it  would  be  an  excellent 
plan  to  sew  the  South  Sea  directors  up  in  sacks  and  throw  them 
into  the  Thames. 

586.  How  a  Terrible  Disease  was  conquered.  ■ —  But  among 
the  new  things  which  the  people  were  to  try  in  this  century  was 
one  which  led  to  most  beneficent  results.  For  many  generations 
the  great  scourge  of  Europe  was  the  small-pox.  Often  the  disease 
was  as  violent  as  the  plague,  and  carried  off  nearly  as  many  vic¬ 
tims.  Medical  art  seemed  powerless  to  deal  with  it,  and  even 
in  years  of  ordinary  health  in  England  about  one  person  out  of  ten 
died  of  this  loathsome  pestilence.  In  the  early  part  of  George  I’s 
reign,  Lady  Mary  Montagu,  then  travelling  in  Turkey,  wrote  that 
the  Turks  were  in  the  habit  of  inoculating  their  children  for  the 
disease,  which  rendered  it  much  milder  and  less  fatal,  and  that 
she  was  about  to  try  the  experiment  on  her  own  son. 

Later,  Lady  Montagu  returned  to  England,  and  through  her 
influence  and  example  the  practice  was  introduced  there  (1721). 
It  was  tried  first  on  five  criminals  in  Newgate  who  had  been 
sentenced  to  the  gallows,  but  were  promised  their  freedom  if 
they  would  consent  to  the  operation.  As  it  proved  a  complete 
success,  the  Princess  of  Wales,  with  the  King’s  consent,  caused 
it  to  be  tried  on  her  daughter,  with  equally  good  results. 

The  medical  profession,  however,  generally  refused  to  sanction 
the  practice,  and  the  clergy  in  many  cases  preached  against  it  as 
an  “  invention  of  Satan,  intended  to  counteract  the  purposes  of  an 
all-wise  Providence.”  But  through  the  perseverance  and  good 
sense  of  Lady  Montagu,  with  a  few  others,  the  new  practice 
gradually  gained  ground.  Subsequently,  Dr.  Jenner  began  to 
make  experiments  of  a  different  kind,  which  led  late  in  the 


320  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1714-1727 


century  to  the  discovery  of  vaccination,  by  which  millions  of 
lives  have  been  saved  ;  this,  with  the  discovery  of  the  use  of 
ether  in  our  own  time,  may  justly  be  called  two  of  the  greatest 
triumphs  of  the  art  of  medicine. 

587.  How  Walpole  governed  (1721).  —  Robert  Walpole  had 
been  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  (§  583)  during  most  of  the  first 
half  of  the  reign  of  George  I.  He  then  became  the  first  Prime 
Minister  (1721),  and  continued  in  office  as  head  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  until  near  the  middle  of  the  next  reign,  or  about  twenty- 
one  years  in  all.  He  was  an  able  financier,  and  succeeded  in 
reducing  the  National  Debt.  He  believed  in  keeping  the 
country  out  of  war,  and  also,  as  we  have  seen,  out  of  bubble 
speculation  (§  585).  Finally,  he  was  determined  at  all  cost  to 
maintain  the  Whig  party  in  power,  and  the  Protestant  Hano¬ 
verian  sovereigns  on  the  throne  ( §  §  531,  581). 

In  order  to  accomplish  this,  he  openly  bribed  members  of  Par¬ 
liament  to  support  his  party;  he  bought  votes  and  carried  elec¬ 
tions  by  gifts  of  titles,  honors,  and  bank-notes,  thus  proving  to  his 
own  satisfaction  the  truth  of  his  theory  that  most  men  “  have  their 
price,”  and  that  an  appeal  to  the  pocket-book  is  both  quicker  and 
surer  than  an  appeal  to  principle.  But  he  had  to  confess  before 
the  end  of  his  ministry  that  he  had  found  in  the  House  of  Com¬ 
mons  one  “boy  patriot,”  as  he  sneeringly  called  him,  named 
William  Pitt  (afterward  Earl  of  Chatham),  whom  neither  his 
money  could  buy  nor  his  ridicule  move. 

Bad  as  Walpole’s  policy  was  in  its  corrupting  influence  on  the 
nation,  it  was  an  admission  that  the  time  had  come  when  the 
King  could  no  longer  venture  to  rule  by  force,  as  in  the  days  of 
the  Stuarts  :  it  meant  that  the  Government  had  been  deprived 
of  the  arbitrary  power  it  once  wielded.  Walpole  was  a  fox,  not 
a  lion ;  and  “  foxes,”  as  Emerson  tells  us,  “  are  so  cunning 
because  they  are  not  strong.” 

588.  Summary.  —  Though  George  I  did  little  for  England 
except  keep  the  “  Pretender  ”  from  the  throne  by  occupying  it 
himself,  yet  that  was  no  small  advantage,  since  it  gave  the 
country  peace.  The  establishment  of  the  cabinet  system  of 


1714-1727]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


321 


government  under  Sir  Robert  Walpole  as  the  first  Prime  Minister, 
the  suppression  of  the  Jacobite  insurrection,  and  the  disastrous 
collapse  of  the  South  Sea  Bubble  are  the  principal  events. 

GEORGE  II  — 1727-1760 

589.  Accession  and  Character.  —  The  second  George,  who  was 
also  of  German  birth,  was  much  like  his  father,  though  he  had 
the  advantage  of  being  able  to  speak  broken  English  readily. 
His  wife,  Queen  Caroline,  was  an  able  woman.  She  possessed 
the  happy  art  of  ruling  her  husband  without  his  suspecting  it, 
while  she,  on  the  other  hand,  was  ruled  by  Sir  Robert  Walpole, 
whom  the  King  hated,  but  whom  he  had  to  keep  as  Prime 
Minister  (§  587).  George  II  was  a  good  soldier,  and  decidedly 
preferred  war  to  peace  ;  but  Walpole  saw  clearly  that  the  peace 
policy  was  best  for  the  nation,  and  he  and  the  Queen  managed 
to  persuade  the  King  not'  to  draw  the  sword. 

590.  The  War  of  Jenkins’  Ear  (1739).  —  At  the  end  of 
twelve  years,  however,  trouble  arose  with  Spain.  According  to  the 
London  newspapers  of  that  day,  a  certain  Captain  Jenkins,  while 
cruising,  or,  more  probably,  smuggling,  in  the  West  Indies,  had 
been  seized  by  the  Spaniards  and  barbarously  maltreated.  They, 
if  we  accept  his  story,  accused  him  of  attempting  to  land  English 
goods  contrary  to  law,  and  searched  his  ship.  Finding  nothing 
against  him,  they  vented  their  rage  and  disappointment  by  hanging 
him  to  the  yard-arm  of  his  vessel  until  he  was  nearly  dead. 

They  then  tore  off  one  of  his  ears,  and  bade  him  take  it  to 
the  King  of  England  with  their  compliments.  Jenkins,  it  is  said, 
carefully  wrapped  up  his  ear  and  put  it  in  his  pocket.  When 
he  reached  England,  he  went  straight  to  the  House  of  Com¬ 
mons,  drew  out  the  mutilated  ear,  showed  it  to  the  House,  and 
demanded  justice. 

The  Spanish  restrictions  on  English  trade  with  the  Indies  and 
South  America1  had  long  been  a  source  of  ill  feeling.  The 

1  By  the  Assiento  (Contract)  Treaty  (§  561),  made  at  Utrecht  in  1713,  one 
English  ship  of  six  hundred  tons  burden  was  allowed  to  make  one  trading  voyage 
a  year  carrying  slaves  to  the  colonies  of  Spanish  America. 


322  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1727-1760 


sight  of  Jenkins’  ear  brought  matters  to  a  climax;  even  Walpole 
could  not  resist  the  clamor  for  vengeance,  and  contrary  to  his 
own  judgment  he  had  to  vote  for  war.  Though  Jenkins  was  the 
occasion,  the  real  object  of  the  war  was  to  compel  Spain  to  per¬ 
mit  the  English  to  get  a  larger  share  in  the  lucrative  commerce 
of  the  new  world.  It  was  another  proof  that  America  was  now 
rapidly  becoming  an  important  factor  in  the  politics  of  Great 
Britain. 

The  announcement  of  hostilities  with  Spain  was  received  in 
London  with  delight,  and  bells  pealed  from  every  steeple. 
“Yes,”  said  Walpole,  “they  may  ring  the  bells  now,  but  before 
long  they  will  be  wringing  their  hands.”  This  prediction  was 
verified  by  the  heavy  losses  the  English  suffered  in  an  expedition 
against  Ca’rthagena,  South  America.  But  later  Commodore  Anson 
inflicted  great  damage  on  the  Spanish  colonies,  and  returned 
to  England  with  vessels  laden  with  large  amounts  of  captured 
treasure. 

591.  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession  (1741). — On  the 

death  of  Charles  VI,  of  the  house  of  Austria,  Emperor  of  Ger¬ 
many,  his  daughter  Maria  Theresa  succeeded  to  the  Austrian 
dominions.  France  now  united  with  Spain,  Prussia,  and  other 
European  powers  to  overturn  this  arrangement,  partly  out  of 
jealousy  of  the  Austrian  power,  and  partly  from  desire  to  get 
control  of  portions  of  the  Austrian  possessions.  England  and 
Holland,  however,  both  desired  to  maintain  Austria  as  a  check 
against  their  old  enemy  France,  and  declared  war  (1741). 

During  this  war  George  II  went  over  to  the  continent  to 
lead  the  English  forces  in  person.  He  was  not  a  man  of  com¬ 
manding  appearance,  but  he  was  every  inch  a  soldier,  and 
nothing  exhilarated  him  like  the  smell  of  gunpowder.  At  the 
battle  of  Dettingen,  in  Bavaria,  he  got  down  from  his  horse,  and 
drawing  his  sword,  cried  :  “  Come,  boys,  now  behave  like  men, 
and  the  French  will  soon  run.” 

With  that,  followed  by  his  troops,  he  rushed  upon  the  enemy 
with  such  impetuosity  that  they  turned  and  fled.  This  was  the 
last  battle  in  which  an  English  king  took  part.  It  was  followed 


1727-1760]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


323 


by  that  of  Fontenoy,  in  the  Netherlands  (Belgium),  in  which  the 
French  gained  the  victory.  After  nearly  eight  years’  fighting  the 
Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  ( 1 748)  secured  a  peace  advantageous 
for  England.1 

592.  Invasion  by  the  “Young  Pretender  ”  ;  “  The  Forty-Five.”  2 

—  While  the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession  was  in  progress,  the 
French  encouraged  James  IPs  grandson,  Charles  Edward,  the 
“Young  Pretender”  (§  584),  to  make  an  attempt  on  the  English 
crown.  He  landed  (1745)  on  the  northern  coast  of  Scotland 
with  only  seven  followers,  but  with  the  aid  of  the  Scotch  Jaco¬ 
bites  (§§547,  584)  of  the  Highlands  he  gained  a  battle  over 
the  English  at  Prestonpans,  near  Edinburgh.  Emboldened  by 
his  success,  he  now  marched  into  Derbyshire,  England,  on  his 
way  to  London.  He  hoped  that  as  he  advanced  the  country 
would  rise  in  his  favor ;  but  finding  no  support,  he  retreated  to 
Scotland. 

The  next  year  he  and  his  adherents  were  defeated  with  great 
slaughter  by  “  Butcher  ”  Cumberland,  as  the  Scotch  called  him, 
at  Culloden,  near  Inverness  (1746).  The  “Pretender”  fled 
from  the  battle-field  to  the  Hebrides.  After  wandering  in  those 
islands  for  many  months  he  escaped  to  France  through  the  devo¬ 
tion  and  courage  of  the  Scottish  heroine,  Flora  Macdonald. 
When  he  left  the  country  his  Highland  sympathizers  lost  all 
hope.  There  were  no  more  ringing  Jacobite  songs,  sung  over 
bowls  of  steaming  punch,  of  “Who  ’ll  be  king  but  Charlie?  ”  and 
“Over  the  water  to  Charlie”;  and  when  (1788)  Prince  Charles 
Edward  died  in  Rome,  the  unfortunate  house  of  Stuart  disappeared 
from  history.8 

1  Aix-la-Chapelle  (Aks-15-Sha'pel').  2  So  called  from  the  Scotch  rising  of  1745. 

3  Devoted  loyalty  to  a  hopeless  cause  was  never  more  truly  or  pathetically 
expressed  than  in  some  of  these  Jacobite  songs,  notably  in  those  of  Scotland,  in 
honor  of  Prince  Charles  Edward,  the  “  Young  Pretender,”  of  which  the  following 
lines  are  an  example  :  — 

“  Over  the  water,  and  over  the  sea, 

And  over  the  water  to  Charlie; 

Come  weal,  come  woe,  we  ’ll  gather  and  go, 

And  live  or  die  with  Charlie.” 

See  Scott’s  Redgauntlet. 


324  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1727-1760 


593.  War  in  the  East;  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta;  Clive’s 
Victories;  English  Empire  of  India  (1751-1757).  —  In  India  the 
English  had  long  had  important  trading-posts  at  Madras,1  Bombay, 
Calcutta,  and  other  points,  but  they  had  not  had  control  of  the 
country,  which  was  governed  by  native  princes.  The  French  also 
had  established  an  important  trading-post  at  Pondicherry,  south 
of  Madras,  and  were  now  secretly  planning  through  alliance  with 
the  native  rulers  to  get  possession  of  the  entire  country.  They 
had  met  with  some  success  in  their  efforts,  and  the  times  seemed 
to  favor  their  gaining  still  greater  influence  unless  some  decided 
measures  should  be  taken  to  prevent  them. 

At  this  juncture  Robert  Clive,  a  young  man  who  had  been 
employed  as  clerk  in  the  service  of  the  English  East  India  Com¬ 
pany,  but  who  had  obtained  a  humble  position  in  the  army, 
obtained  permission  to  try  his  hand  at  driving  back  the  enemy. 
It  was  the  very  work  for  which  he  was  fitted.  He  met  with  suc¬ 
cess  from  the  first,  and  he  followed  it  up  by  the  splendid  victory 
of  Arcot  (1751),  which  practically  gave  the  English  control  of 
Southern  India.  Shortly  after  that,  Clive  returned  to  England. 

During  his  absence  the  native  prince  of  Bengal  undertook  an 
expedition  against  Calcutta,  a  wealthy  British  trading-post.  He 
captured  the  fort  which  protected  it  (1756),  and  seizing  the  prin¬ 
cipal  English  residents,  one  hundred  and  forty-six  in  number, 
drove  them  at  the  point  of  the  sword  into  a  prison  called  the 
“  Black  Hole,”  less  than  twenty  feet  square  and  having  but  two 
small  windows. 

In  such  a  climate,  in  the  fierce  heat  of  midsummer,  that  dun¬ 
geon  would  have  been  too  close  for  a  single  European  captive ; 
to  crowd  it  with  more  than  seven  score  persons  for  a  night 
meant  death  by  all  the  agonies  of  heat,  thirst,  and  suffocation.  In 
vain  they  endeavored  to  bribe  the  guard  to  transfer  part  of 
them  to  another  room,  in  vain  they  begged  for  mercy  and  tried 
to  burst  the  door.  Their  jailers  only  mocked  them  and  would 
do  nothing. 

Then,  says  Macaulay,  “  the  prisoners  went  mad  with  despair ; 

1  Thfe  English  got  possession  of  Madras  —  their  first  Indian  territory  —  in  1639. 


1727-1760]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


325 


they  trampled  each  other  down,  they  fought  to  get  at  the  win¬ 
dows,  they  fought  for  the  pittance  of  water  which  was  given  them, 
they  raved,  prayed,  blasphemed,  and  implored  the  guards  to  fire 
upon  them.  At  length  the  tumult  died  away  in  low  gasps  and 
moanings. 

“  When  daylight  came  and  the  dungeon  was  opened,  the  floor 
was  heaped  with  mutilated  half-putrescent  corpses.  Out  of  the 
hundred  and  forty-six,  one  of  whom  was  a  woman,  only  twenty- 
three  were  alive,  and  they  were  so  changed,  so  feeble,  so  ghastly, 
that  their  own  mothers  would  not  have  known  them.” 

When  Clive  returned  he  was  met  with  a  cry  for  vengeance. 
He  gathered  his  troops,  recovered  Calcutta,  and  ended  by  fight¬ 
ing  that  great  battle  of  Plassey  (1757),  which  was  the  means  of 
permanently  establishing  the  English  empire  in  India  on  a  firm 
foundation.1 

594.  The  Seven  Years’  War  in  Europe  and  America,  1756- 
1763.  —  Before  the  contest  had  closed  by  which  England  won 
her  Asiatic  dominions,  a  new  war  had  broken  out.  In  the  fifth 
year  (1756)  of  the  New  Style  2  of  reckoning  time,  the  aggressive 
designs  of  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia  caused  such  alarm  that 
a  grand  alliance  was  formed  by  France,  Russia,  Austria,  and 
Poland  to  check  his  further  advance.  Great  Britain,  however, 
gave  her  support  to  Frederick,  in  the  hope  of  humbling  her  old 
enemy  France,  who,  in  addition  to  her  attempts  to  oust  the 
English  from  India,  was  also  making  preparations  on  a  grand 
scale  to  get  possession  of  America. 


1  See  Map  No.  17,  facing  page  324  ;  and  see  Macaulay’s  Essay  on  Clive. 

2  The  New  Style  was  introduced  into  Great  Britain  in  1752.  Owing  to  a  slight 
error  in  the  calendar,  the  year  had,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  been  gradually  losing, 
so  that  in  1752  it  was  eleven  days  short  of  what  the  true  computation  would  make 
it.  Pope  Gregory  corrected  the  error  in  1582,  and  his  calendar  was  adopted  in  nearly 
every  country  of  Europe  except  Great  Britain  and  Russia,  both  of  which  regarded 
the  change  as  a  “  popish  measure.”  But  in  1751,  notwithstanding  the  popular  out¬ 
cry,  Sept.  3,  1752,  was  made  September  14,  by  an  act  of  Parliament,  and  by  the  same 
act  the  beginning  of  the  legal  year  was  altered  from  March  25  to  January  1.  The  pop¬ 
ular  clamor  against  the  reform  is  illustrated  in  Hogarth’s  picture  of  an  Election  Feast, 
in  which  the  People’s  party  carry  a  banner,  with  the  inscription,  “Give  us  back  our 
eleven  days.” 


326  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1727-1760 

Every  victory,  therefore,  which  the  British  forces  could  gain  in 
Europe  would,  by  crippling  the  French,  make  the  ultimate  victory 
in  America  so  much  the  more  certain ;  so  that  we  may  look  upon 
the  alliance  with  Frederick  as  an  indirect  means  employed  by 
England  to  protect  her  colonies  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
These  had  now  extended  along  the  entire  coast,  from  the  Kennebec 
River,  in  Maine,  to  the  borders  of  Florida. 

The  French,  on  the  other  hand,  had  planted  colonies  at  Quebec 
and  Montreal,  on  the  St.  Lawrence ;  at  Detroit,  on  the  Great 
Lakes ;  at  New  Orleans  and  other  points  on  the  Mississippi. 
They  had  also  begun  to  build  a  line  of  forts  along  the  Ohio  River, 
which,  when  completed,  would  connect  their  northern  and  south¬ 
ern  colonies,  and  thus  secure  to  them  the  whole  country  west  of 
the  Alleghanies.  They  expected  to  conquer  the  East  as  well, 
and  to  erase  Virginia,  New  England,  and  all  other  colonial  titles 
from  the  map,  inscribing  in  their  place  the  name  of  New  France. 

During  the  first  part  of  the  war,  the  English  were  unsuccessful. 
In  an  attempt  to  take  Fort  Duquesne,1  General  Braddock  met 
with  a  crushing  defeat  (1756)  from  the  combined  French  and 
Indian  forces,  which  would  indeed  have  proved  his  utter  destruc¬ 
tion  had  not  a  young  Virginian  named  George  Washington  saved 
a  remnant  of  his  troops  by  his  calmness  and  courage.  Not  long 
afterward,  a  second  expedition  was  sent  out  against  the  French 
fort,  in  which  Washington  led  the  advance.  The  garrison  fled  at 
his  approach,  the  English  colors  were  run  up,  and  the  place  was 
named  Pittsburgh,  in  honor  of  William  Pitt,  then  Secretary  of 
State,  but  virtually  Prime  Minister  (§  587)  of  England. 

About  the  same  time,  the  English  took  the  forts  on  the  Bay  of 
Fundy,  and  drove  out  a  number  of  thousand  French  settlers  from 
Acadia.2  This  gave  them  control  of  Nova  Scotia.  Other  suc¬ 
cesses  followed,  by  which  they  obtained  possession  of  important 
points.  Finally,  Canada  was  won  from  the  French  by  Wolfe’s 
victory  over  Montcalm,  at  Quebec  (1759),  where  both  gallant 
soldiers  verified  the  truth  of  the  lines,  “  The  paths  of  glory  lead 

1  Duquesne  (Doo-kane'). 

2  See  Montgomery’s  Leading  Facts  of  American  History,  §  142,  and  note. 


1727-1760]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


327 


but  to  the  grave,”  1  which  the  English  general  had  quoted  to 
some  brother  officers  the  evening  before  the  attack.  This  ended 
the  war. 

Spain  now  ceded  Florida  to  Great  Britain,  so  that,  when  peace 
was  made  in  1763,  the  English  flag  waved  over  the  whole  eastern 
half  of  the  American  continent,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Missis¬ 
sippi.  Thus,  within  a  comparatively  few  years,  England  had 
gained  an  empire  in  the  east  (India),  and  another  in  the  west 
(America). 

Six  years  later  (1769)  Captain  Cook  explored  and  mapped  the 
coast  of  New  Zealand,  and  next  the  eastern  coast  of  the  island- 
continent  of  Australia.  Before  the  middle  of  the  following  cen¬ 
tury  both  these  countries  were  added  to  the  possessions  of  Great 
Britain.  Then  her  “  morning  drum-beat,  following  the  sun  and 
keeping  company  with  the  hours,”  literally  circled  “  the  earth 
with  one  continuous  and  unbroken  strain  of  the  martial  airs  of 
England.”  2 

595.  Moral  Condition  of  England;  Intemperance;  Rise  of  the 
Methodists  (1739).  —  But  grand  as  were  the  military  successes 
of  the  British  arms,  the  reign  of  George  II  was  morally  torpid. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  public  men  like  Pitt,  the  majority  of 
the  Whig  party  (§531)  seemed  animated  by  no  higher  motive 
than  self-interest.  It  was  an  age  whose  want  of  faith,  coarse¬ 
ness,  and  brutality  were  well  portrayed  by  Hogarth’s  pencil  and 
Fielding’s  pen. 

For  a  long  time  intemperance  had  been  steadily  on  the  increase  ; 
strong  drink  had  taken  the  place  of  beer,  and  every  attempt  to 
restrict  the  traffic  was  met  at  the  elections  by  the  popular  cry, 
“  No  gin,  no  king.”  The  London  taverns  were  thronged  day  and 

1  “  The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  power, 

And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e’er  gave, 

Await  alike  the  inevitable  hour ; 

The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave.” 

Gray’s  Elegy  (1730). 

“  I  would  rather  be  the  author  of  that  poem,”  said  Wolfe,  “  than  to  have  the  glory  of 
beating  the  French  to-morrow.”  Wolfe  and  Montcalm  were  both  mortally  wounded 
and  died  within  a  few  hours  of  each  other. 

2  Daniel  Webster,  speech  of  May  7,  1834. 


328  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1727-1760 


night,  and  in  the  windows  of  those  frequented  by  the  lowest  class, 
placards  were  exhibited  with  the  tempting  announcement,  “  Drunk 
for  a  penny ;  dead  drunk  for  twopence  ;  clean  straw  for  nothing.” 
On  the  straw  lay  men  and  women  in  beastly  helplessness. 

Among  the  upper  classes  matters  were  hardly  better.  It  was 
a  common  thing  for  great  statesmen  to  drink  at  public  dinners 
until  one  by  one  they  slid  out  of  their  seats  and  disappeared  under 
the  table ;  and  Robert  Walpole,  the  late  Prime  Minister  of  Eng¬ 
land  (§§  583,  587),  said  that  when  he  was  a  young  man  his  father 
would  say  to  him  as  he  poured  out  the  wine,  “  Come,  Robert, 
you  shall  drink  twice  while  I  drink  once,  for  I  will  not  permit 
the  son  in  his  sober  senses  to  be  witness  of  the  intoxication  of 
his  father.”  1 

Such  was  the  condition  of  England  when  a  great  religious  revival 
began  (1739).  Its  leader  was  a  student  at  Oxford,  named  John 
Wesley.  He,  with  his  brother  Charles  and  a  few  others,  was 
accustomed  to  meet  at  certain  hours  for  devotional  exercises. 
The  regularity  of  their  meetings,  and  of  their  habits  generally,  got 
for  them  the  name  of  “Methodists,”  which,  like  “Quaker”  and 
many  another  nickname  of  the  kind,  was  destined  to  become  a 
title  of  respect  and  honor. 

At  first  Wesley  had  no  intention  of  separating  from  the  Church 
of  England,  but  labored  only  to  quicken  it  to  new  life  ;  eventually, 
however,  he  found  it  best  to  begin  a  more  extended  and  inde¬ 
pendent  movement.  The  revival  swept  over  England  with  its 
regenerating  influence,  and  was  carried  by  Wesley  and  Whitefield 
across  the  sea  to  America.2  It  was  especially  powerful  among 
those  who  had  hitherto  scoffed  at  both  church  and  Bible.  Rough 
and  hardened  men  were  touched  and  melted  to  tears  of  repent¬ 
ance  by  the  fervor  of  this  Oxford  graduate,  whom  neither  threats 
nor  ridicule  could  turn  aside  from  his  one  great  purpose  of 
saving  souls. 

Unlike  the  Church,  Wesley  did  not  ask  the  multitude  to  come 

1  See  Coxe’s  Memoirs  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  and  Lecky’s  England  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century. 

2  See ‘Montgomery’s  Leading  Facts  of  American  History,  §  129. 


1727-1760]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


329 


to  him ;  he  went  to  them.  He  rode  on  horseback  from  one  end 
of  the  country  to  the  other,  making  known  the  glad  tidings  of 
Christian  hope.  He  preached  in  the  fields,  under  trees  which 
are  still  known  throughout  England  by  the  expressive  name  of 
“  Gospel  Oaks  ” ;  he  spoke  in  the  abandoned  mining  pits  of 
Cornwall,  at  the  corners  of  the  streets,  in  cities,  on  the  docks, 
in  the  slums ;  in  fact,  wherever  he  could  find  listening  ears  and 
responsive  hearts. 

If  we  except  the  great  Puritan  movement  of  the  seventeenth 
century  (§§  430,  469),  no  such  appeal  had  been  heard  since  the 
days  when  Augustine  and  his  band  of  monks  set  forth  on  their 
mission  among  the  barbarous  Saxons  (§  78).  The  results  answered 
fully  to  the  zeal  that  awakened  them.  Better  than  the  growing 
prosperity  of  extending  commerce,  better  than  all  the  conquests 
in  the  east  or  west,  was  the  new  religious  spirit  which  stirred  the 
people  of  both  England  and  America.  It  provoked  the  National 
Church  to  emulation  in  good  works ;  it  planted  schools,  checked 
intemperance,  and  brought  into  vigorous  activity  all  that  was  best 
and  bravest  in  a  race  that  when  true  to  itself  is  excelled  by  none. 

596.  Summary.  —  The  history  of  the  reign  may  be  summed 
up  in  the  great  religious  movement  which  has  just  been  described, 
and  in  the  Asiatic,  continental,  and  American  wars  with  France, 
which  ended  in  the  extension  of  the  power  of  Great  Britain 
in  both  hemispheres,  —  in  India  in  the  old  world,  and  in  North 
America  in  the  new. 


GEORGE  III  — 1760-1820 

597.  Accession  and  Character;  the  King’s  Struggle  with  the 
Whigs. — By  the  death  of  George  II  his  grandson,1  George  III, 
now  came  to  the  throne.  The  new  King  was  a  man  of  excellent 
character,  who  prided  himself  on  having  been  born  an  English¬ 
man.  He  had  the  best  interests  of  his  country  at  heart,  but 
he  lacked  many  of  the  qualities  necessary  to  a  great  ruler,  and, 

1  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  George  II’s  son,  died  before  his  father,  leaving  his 
son  George  heir  to  the  throne.  See  table,  §  581. 


33©  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


although  thoroughly  conscientious,  he  was  narrow  and  stubborn 
to  the  last  degree. 

His  mother,  who  had  seen  how  ministers  and  parties  ruled  in 
England  (§  583),  resolved  that  her  son  should  have  the  control. 
Her  constant  injunction  to  the  young  prince  was,  “  Be  King, 
George,  be  King  !  ”  so  that  when  he  came  to  power  George  was 
determined  to  be  King  if  self-will  could  make  him  one.1 

But  beneath  this  spirit  of  self-will  there  was  moral  principle. 
In  being  King,  George  III  intended  to  carry  out  a  reform  such 
as  neither  George  I  nor  George  II  could  have  accomplished,  sup¬ 
posing  that  either  one  had  possessed  the  will  to  undertake  it. 

The  great  Whig  (§§  531,  581)  families  of  rank  and  wealth  had 
now  held  uninterrupted  possession  of  the  government  for  nearly 
half  a  century.  Their  influence  was  so  supreme  that  the  sov¬ 
ereign  had  practically  become  a  mere  cipher,  dependent  for  his 
authority  on  the  political  support  which  he  received.  The  King 
was  resolved  that  this  state  of  things  should  continue  no  longer. 
He  was  determined  to  reassert  the  royal  authority,  secure  a 
government  which  should  reflect  his  principles,  and  have  a  min¬ 
istry  to  whom  he  could  dictate,  instead  of  one  that  dictated 
to  him. 

For  a  long  time  he  struggled  in  vain,  but  at  last  succeeded, 
and  found  in  Lord  North  a  Prime  Minister  who  bowed  to  the 
royal  will,  and  endeavored  to  carry  out  George  Ill’s  favorite 
policy  of  “  governing  for,  but  never  by,  the  people.”  That  policy 
finally  resulted  in  calling  forth  Mr.  Dunning’s  famous  resolution 
in  the  House  of  Commons  (1780)  that  the  King’s  influence  “had 
increased,  was  increasing,  and  ought  to  be  diminished.”  But  it 
had  other  consequences,  which,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  were 
more  far-reaching  and  disastrous  than  any  one  in  the  House  of 
Commons  then  imagined. 

598.  Taxation  of  the  American  Colonies.  —  The  wars  of  the  two 

preceding  reigns  had  largely  increased  the  National  Debt  (§  552), 
and  the  Government  resolved  to  compel  the  American  colonies 
to  share  in  a  more  direct  degree  than  they  had  yet  done  the 

1  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxv,  §  28. 


1760-1820]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


331 


constantly  increasing  burden  of  taxation.  England  then,  like 
all  other  European  countries,  regarded  her  colonies  in  a  totally 
different  way  from  what  she  does  at  present. 

It  was  an  open  question  at  that  time  whether  colonial  legislative 
rights  existed  save  as  a  matter  of  concession  or  favor  on  the  part 
of  the  Home  Government.  It  is  true  that  the  Government  had 
found  it  expedient  to  grant  or  recognize  such  rights,  but  it  had 
seldom  defined  them  clearly,  and  in  many  important  respects  no 
one  knew  just  what  the  settlers  of  Virginia  or  Massachusetts 
might  or  might  not  do.1 

The  general  theory  of  the  mother-country  was  that  the  colonies 
were  convenient  receptacles  for  the  surplus  population,  good  or 
bad,  of  the  British  Islands ;  next,  that  they  were  valuable  as 
sources  of  revenue  and  profit,  politically  and  commercially ;  and 
lastly,  that  they  furnished  excellent  opportunities  for  the  king’s 
friends  to  get  office  and  make  fortunes.  Such  was  the  feeling 
about  India,  and  such,  modified  by  difference  of  circumstances, 
it  was  respecting  America. 

Politically  the  English  colonists  in  America  enjoyed  a  large 
measure  of  liberty.  So  far  as  local  legislation  was  concerned, 
they  were  in  most  cases  practically  self-governing  and  indepen¬ 
dent.  So,  too,  their  personal  rights  were  carefully  safeguarded. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  commercial  policy  of  England  toward  her 
colonies,  though  severely  restrictive,  was  far  less  so  than  that  of 
Spain  or  France  toward  theirs.  The  Navigation  Laws  (§  5  1 1 ) 
compelled  the  Americans  to  confine  their  trade  to  England  alone, 
or  to  such  foreign  ports  as  she  directed.  If  they  sent  a  hogshead 
of  tobacco  or  a  barrel  of  salt  fish  to  another  country  by  any 
but  an  English  or  a  colonial  built  vessel,  they  were  legally  liable 
to  forfeit  their  goods.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this  law  had 
not  been  rigidly  enforced  for  a  long  time,  and  the  New  England 
colonists  generally  treated  it  as  a  dead  letter. 

When  George  III  came  to  the  throne  he  resolved  to  revive  the 
enforcement  of  the  Navigation  Laws,  and  to  restrict  the  colonial 
trade  with  the  Spanish  and  French  West  Indies.  This  was  done, 

1  See  Story’s  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


332  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


not  with  the  view  of  crippling  American  commerce,  but  either  to 
increase  English  revenue  or  to  inflict  injury  on  foreign  rivals  or 
enemies. 

Furthermore,  British  manufacturers  had  at  an  earlier  period 
induced  the  English  Government  to  restrict  American  home  prod¬ 
ucts.  In  accordance  with  that  policy,  Parliament  had  enacted 
statutes  which  virtually  forbade  the  colonists  making  their  own 
woollen  cloth,  or  their  own  beaver  hats,  except  on  a  very  lim¬ 
ited  scale.  They  had  a  few  iron  works,  but  they  were  for¬ 
bidden  to  erect  another  furnace,  or  a  mill  for  manufacturing 
iron  rods  or  plates,  and  such  industries  were  declared  to  be  a 
nuisance.  Pitt,  who  was  one  of  the  warmest  friends  that  America 
had,  openly  advocated  this  narrow  policy,  saying  that  if  British 
interests  demanded  it  he  would  not  permit  the  colonists  to  make 
so  much  as  a  “  horseshoe  nail.”  He  did  not  need  to  add,  “  or  let 
them  print  a  copy  of  the  English  Bible,”  since  they  were  already 
prohibited  from  doing  that.  Adam  Smith,  the  eminent  political 
economist  (§  612),  vehemently  condemned  the  English  colonial 
mercantile  system  as  suicidal ;  but  unfortunately  his  condemnation 
came  too  late  to  have  any  effect.  The  truth  was  that  the  world 
was  not  ready  then  to  receive  the  gospel  of  “  Live  and  let  live.” 

599.  The  Stamp  Act,  1765.  —  In  accordance  with  these  theo¬ 
ries  about  the  colonies,  and  to  meet  the  pressing  needs  of  the 
Home  Government,  the  English  ministry  proceeded  to  levy  a  tax 
on  the  colonies  (1764),  in  return  for  the  protection  they  granted 
them  against  the  French  and  the  Indians.  The  colonists  had  paid, 
however,  as  they  believed,  their  full  proportion  of  the  expense  of 
the  French  and  Indian  wars  out  of  their  own  pockets,  and  they 
now  felt  abundantly  able  to  protect  themselves. 

But  notwithstanding  this  plea,  a  specially  obnoxious  form  of 
direct  tax,  called  the  “Stamp  Act,”  was  brought  forward  in  1765. 
It  required  that  all  legal  documents,  such  as  deeds,  wills,  notes, 
receipts,  and  the  like,  should  be  written  upon  paper  bearing  stamps, 
purchased  from  the  agents  of  the  Home  Government.  Not  only 
the  leading  men  among  the  colonists,  but  the  colonists  generally, 
protested  against  the  act,  and  Benjamin  Franklin,  with  other 


1760-1820]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


333 


agents,  was  sent  to  England  to  sustain  their  protests  by  argument 
and  remonstrance.  But  in  spite  of  their  efforts  the  law  was 
passed,  and  the  stamps  were  duly  sent  over  to  America.  The 
people,  however,  were  determined  not  to  use  them,  and  serious 
riots  ensued. 

In  England  strong  sympathy  with  the  colonists  was  expressed 
by  William  Pitt  (who  was  shortly  after  created  Earl  of  Chatham), 
Burke,  Fox,  and  generally  by  what  was  well  called  “  the  brains  of 
Parliament.”  Pitt  in  particular  was  extremely  indignant.  He 
urged  the  immediate  repeal  of  the  act,  saying,  “  I  rejoice  that 
America  has  resisted.” 

Pitt  further  declared  that  any  taxation  of  the  colonies  without 
their  representation  in  Parliament  was  tyranny,  and  that  oppo¬ 
sition  to  such  taxation  was  a  duty.  He  vehemently  insisted 
that  the  spirit  shown  by  the  Americans  was  the  same  which  had 
withstood  the  despotism  of  the  Stuarts  in  England,  and  estab¬ 
lished  the  principle  once  for  all  that  the  king  cannot  take  his 
subject’s  money  without  that  subject’s  consent  (§  484).  So,  too, 
Fox  ardently  defended  the  American  colonists,  and  boldly  main¬ 
tained  that  the  stand  they  had  taken  helped  “  to  preserve  the 
liberties  of  mankind.”  1 

Against  such  opposition  the  law  could  not  stand.  The  act 
was  accordingly  repealed  (1766),  amid  great  rejoicing  in  London  ; 
the  church  bells  rang  a  peal  of  triumph,  and  the  shipping  in  the 
Thames  was  illuminated.  But  the  good  effect  on  America  was 
lost  by  the  passage  of  another  act  which  maintained  the  uncondi¬ 
tional  right  of  Parliament  to  legislate  for  the  colonies,  or,  in  other 
words,  to  tax  them,  if  it  saw  fit,  without  their  consent. 

600.  The  Tea  Tax  and  the  “  Boston  Tea  Party,”  1773, 
with  its  Results.  —  Another  plan  was  now  devised  for  getting 
money  from  the  colonies.  Parliament  enacted  a  law  (1767) 
compelling  the  Americans  to  pay  taxes  on  a  number  of  imports, 
such  as  glass,  paper,  and  tea.  In  opposition  to  this  law,  the 

1  See  Bancroft’s  United  States,  III,  107-108;  Columbia  University  Studies,  III, 
No.  2,  “The  Commercial  Policy  of  England  toward  the  American  Colonies”;  and 
Lecky’s  American  Revolution,  edited  by  Prof.  J.  A.  Woodburn. 


334  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


colonists  formed  leagues  refusing  to  use  these  taxed  articles, 
while  at  the  same  time  they  encouraged  smugglers  to  secretly 
land  them,  and  the  regular  trade  suffered  accordingly. 

Parliament,  finding  that  this  was  bad  both  for  the  government 
and  for  commerce,  now  abolished  all  of  these  duties  except  that 
on  tea  (1770).  That  duty  was  retained  for  a  double  purpose: 
first,  and  chiefly,  to  maintain  the  principle  of  the  right  of  Great 
Britain  to  tax  the  colonies,1  and,  next,  to  aid  the  East  India 
Company,  which  was  pleading  piteously  for  help. 

In  consequence  mainly  of  the  refusal  of  the  American  col¬ 
onists  to  buy  tea,  the  London  warehouses  of  the  East  India 
Company  were  full  to  overflowing  with  surplus  stock,  and  the 
company  itself  was  in  a  half-bankrupt  condition.  The  custom 
had  been  for  the  company  to  bring  the  tea  to  England,  pay  a 
tax  on  it,  and  then  sell  it  to  be  reshipped  to  America.  To 
aid  the  company  in  its  embarrassment,  the  Government  now 
agreed  to  remit  this  first  duty  altogether,  and  to  impose  a  tax 
of  only  threepence  (six  cents)  a  pound  on  the  consumers  in 
America. 

Such  an  arrangement  would,  they  argued,  be  an  advantage  all 
around,  for,  first,  it  would  aid  the  company  to  dispose  of  its  stock ; 
next,  it  would  enable  the  colonists  to  get  tea  at  a  far  cheaper 
rate  than  before ;  and,  lastly,  and  most  important  of  all,  it  would 
keep  the  principle  of  colonial  taxation  in  force.  But  the  colo¬ 
nists  did  not  accept  this  reasoning.  In  itself  the  threepenny 
tax  was  a  trifle,  as  the  ship-money  tax  of  twenty  shillings  was  to 
John  Hampden  (§  488)  ;  but  underlying  it  was  a  principle  which 
seemed  to  the  Americans,  as  it  had  seemed  to  Hampden,  no 
trifle ;  for  such  principles  revolutions  had  been  fought  in  the 
past ;  for  such  they  would  be  fought  in  the  future. 

The  colonists  resolved  not  to  have  the  tea  at  any  price.  A 
number  of  ships  laden  with  the  hated  taxed  herb  arrived  at  the 
port  of  Boston.  The  tea  was  seized  by  a  band  of  men  dis¬ 
guised  as  Indians,  and  thrown  into  the  harbor,  1773.  The 
news  of  that  action  made  the  King  and  his  ministry  furious. 

1  1  “  There  must  be  one  tax,”  said  the  King,  “  to  keep  up  the  right.” 


THE  NELSON  MONUMENT,  TRAFALGAR  SQUARE,  LONDON 


1760-1820]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


335 


Parliament  sympathized  with  the  Government,  and  in  retaliation 
passed  four  acts  unparalleled  for  their  severity. 

The  first  was  the  “  Boston  Port  Act,”  which  closed  the  harbor 
to  all  trade ;  the  second  was  the  “  Regulating  Act,”  which 
virtually  annulled  the  charter  of  Massachusetts,  took  the  govern¬ 
ment  away  from  the  people  and  gave  it  to  the  King ;  the  third 
measure  was  the  “Administration  of  Justice  Act,”  which  ordered 
that  Americans  who  committed  murder  in  resistance  to  oppres¬ 
sion  should  be  sent  to  England  for  trial ;  the  fourth,  the  “  Quebec 
Act,”  declared  the  country  north  of  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the 
Mississippi  a  part  of  Canada.1  The  object  of  this  last  act  was 
to  conciliate  the  French  Canadians,  and  secure  their  help  against 
the  colonists  in  case  of  rebellion. 

Even  after  this  unjust  action  on  the  part  of  the  Home  Govern¬ 
ment  a  compromise  might  have  been  effected,  and  peace  main¬ 
tained,  if  the  counsels  of  the  best  men  had  been  followed  ;  but 
George  III  would  listen  to  no  policy  short  of  coercion.  His  brain 
was  not  well  balanced,  he  was  subject  to  attacks  of  mental 
derangement,  and  his  one  idea  of  being  King  at  all  hazards  had 
become  a  kind  of  monomania  ( §  597).  Burke  denounced  the  inex¬ 
pediency  of  such  oppression,  and  Fox,  another  prominent  member 
of  Parliament,  wrote,  “  It  is  intolerable  to  think  that  it  should  be 
in  the  power  of  one  blockhead  to  do  so  much  mischief.” 

For  the  time,  at  least,  the  King  was  as  unreasonable  as  any  of 
the  Stuarts.  The  obstinacy  of  Charles  I  cost  him  his  head,  that 
of  James  II  his  kingdom,  that  of  George  III  resulted  in  a  war 
which  saddled  the  English  tax-payer  with  an  additional  debt 
of  jQi  20,000,000,  and  forever  detached  from  Great  Britain  the 
fairest  and  richest  dominions  that  she  ever  possessed. 

601.  The  American  Revolution,  1775  ;  Recognition  of  the 
Independence  of  the  United  States,  1782.  —  In  1775  war  began, 
and  the  stand  made  by  the  patriots  at  Lexington  and  the  fighting 
which  followed  at  Concord  and  Bunker  Hill  showed  that  the 
Americans  were  in  earnest.  The  cry  of  the  colonists  had  been, 

1  Embracing  territory  now  divided  into  the  five  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  and  Wisconsin,  with  Eastern  Minnesota. 


336  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


“  No  taxation  without  representation  ”  ;  now  they  had  got  beyond 
that,  and  demanded,  “  No  legislation  without  representation.” 
But  events  moved  so  fast  that  even  this  did  not  long  suffice,  and 
on  July  4,  1776,  the  colonies,  in  Congress  assembled,  solemnly 
declared  themselves  free  and  independent.1 

As  far  back  as  the  French  war  there  was  at  least  one  man  who 
foresaw  this  declaration.  After  the  English  had  taken  Quebec 
(§  594),  Vergennes,2  an  eminent  French  statesman,  said  of  the 
American  colonies  with  respect  to  Great  Britain,  “They  stand  no 
longer  in  need  of  her  protection  ;  she  will  call  on  them  to  con¬ 
tribute  toward  supporting  the  burdens  they  have  helped  to  bring 
on  her  ;  and  they  will  answer  by  striking  off  all  dependence.”  3 

'This  prophecy  was  now  fulfilled.  After  the  Americans  had 
defeated  Burgoyne  (1777)  the  English  ministry  became  alarmed; 
they  declared  themselves  ready  to  make  terms ;  they  offered  to 
grant  anything  but  independence  ; 4  but  they  had  opened  their 
eyes  to  the  facts  too  late,  and  nothing  short  of  independence 
would  now  satisfy  the  colonists.  It  is  said  that  attempts  were 
made  to  open  negotiations  with  General  Washington,  but  the 
commander-in-chief  declined  to  receive  a  letter  from  the  English 
Government  addressed  to  him,  not  in  his  official  capacity,  but  as 
“  George  Washington,  Esq.,”  and  so  the  matter  came  to  nothing. 

The  war  was  never  really  popular  in  England.  From  the  out¬ 
set  great  numbers  refused  to  enlist  to  fight  the  Americans,  and 
spoke  of  the  contest  as  the  “  King’s  War”  to  show  that  the  bulk 
of  the  English  people  did  not  encourage  it.  The  struggle  went 
on  with  varying  success  through  seven  heavy  years,  until,  with 
the  aid  of  the  French,  the  Americans  defeated  Lord  Cornwallis 
at  Yorktown  in  1781. 5  By  that  battle  France  got  her  revenge 

1  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxv,  §  29. 

2  Vergennes  (Ver'zhen1).  3  Bancroft’s  History  of  the  United  States. 

4  This  was  after  France  had  recognized  the  independence  of  the  United  States, 

1778. 

5  It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  a  hundred  years  later,  in  the  autumn  of  1881,  a 
number  of  English  gentlemen  were  present  at  the  centennial  celebration  of  the 
taking  of  Yorktown  to  express  their  hearty  good  will  toward  the  nation  which  their  ] 
ancestors  had  tried  in  vain  to  keep  a  part  of  Great  Britain. 


1760-1S20]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


337 


for  the  loss  of  Quebec  in  1759  (§  594),  and  America  finally  won 
the  cause  for  which  she  had  spent  so  much  life  and  treasure. 

On  a  foggy  December  morning  in  1782,  George  III  entered 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  with  a  faltering  voice  read  a  paper  in 
which  he  acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  United  States 
of  America.  He  closed  his  reading  with  the  prayer  that  neither 
Great  Britain  nor  America  might  suffer  from  the  separation ;  and 
he  expressed  the  hope  that  religion,  language,  interest,  and  affec¬ 
tion  might  prove  an  effectual  bond  of  union  between  the  two 
countries. 

Eventually  the  separation  proved,  as  Goldwin  Smith  says,1  “  a 
mutual  advantage,  since  it  removed  to  a  great  extent  the  arbitrary 
restrictions  on  trade,  gave  a  new  impetus  to  commerce,  and 
immensely  increased  the  wealth  of  both  nations.” 

602.  The  Lord  George  Gordon  Riots  (1780). — While  the 
American  war  was  in  progress,  England  had  not  been  entirely 
quiet  at  home.  In  consequence  of  the  repeal  of  the  most 
stringent  of  the  unwise  and  unjust  laws  against  the  Roman 
Catholics  (§  548),  Lord  George  Gordon,  a  half-crazed  Scotch 
fanatic,  now  led  an  attack  upon  the  Government  (1780). 

For  six  days  London  was  at  the  mercy  of  a  furious  mob, 
which  set  fire  to  Catholic  chapels,  pillaged  many  dwellings,  and 
committed  every  species  of  outrage.  Newgate  prison  was  broken 
into,  the  prisoners  released,  and  the  prison  burned.  No  one  was 
safe  from  attack  who  did  not  wear  a  blue  cockade  to  show  that 
he  was  a  Protestant,  and  no  man’s  house  was  secure  unless  he 
chalked  “  No  Pc^ery  ”  on  the  door  in  conspicuous  letters  ;  or, 
as  one  individual  did  in  order  to  make  doubly  sure,  “No  Reli¬ 
gion  whatever.”  Before  the  riot  was  subdued  a  large  amount  of 
property  had  been  destroyed  and  many  lives  sacrificed. 

603.  Impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings  (1788).  —  Six  years 
after  the  American  Revolution  came  to  an  end  Warren  Hastings, 


1  Goldwin  Smith’s  Lectures  on  Modern  History,  “  The  Foundation  of  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Colonies.”  On  the  colonial  and  revolutionary  period  in  general  see  Lecky’s 
American  Revolution,  edited  by  Prof.  J.  A.  Woodburn,  and  Montgomery’s  Leading 
Facts  of  American  History  or  his  Student's  American  History. 


338  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


Governor-General  of  India,  was  impeached  for  corrupt  and  cruel 
government,  and  was  tried  before  the  House  of  Lords,  gathered 
in  Westminster  Hall.  On  the  side  of  Hastings  was  the  powerful 
East  India  Company,  ruling  over  a  territory  many  times  larger 
than  the  whole  of  Great  Britain.  Against  him  were  arrayed  the 
three  ablest  and  most  eloquent  men  in  England,  —  Burke,  Fox, 
and  Sheridan. 

The  trial  was  continued  at  intervals  for  over  seven  years.  It 
resulted  in  the  acquittal  of  the  accused  (1795);  but  it  was  proved 
that  the  chief  business  of  those  who  went  out  to  India  was  to 
wring  fortunes  from  the  natives,  and  then  go  back  to  England  to 
live  like  “  nabobs,”  and  spend  their  ill-gotten  money  in  a  life  of 
luxury.  This  fact,  and  the  stupendous  corruption  that  was  shown 
to  exist,  eventually  broke  down  the  gigantic  monopoly,  and 
British  India  was  thrown  open  to  the  trade  of  all  nations.1 

604.  Liberty  of  the  Press  ;  Law  and  Prison  Reforms  ;  Abo¬ 
lition  of  the  Slave  Trade.  —  Since  the  discontinuance  of  the 
censorship  of  the  press  (§  550),  though  newspapers  were  nomi¬ 
nally  free  to  discuss  public  affairs,  yet  the  Government  had  no 
intention  of  permitting  any  severe  criticism  (§  563).  On  the  other 
hand,  there  were  men  who  were  determined  to  speak  their  minds 
through  the  press  on  political  as  on  all  other  matters.  In  the 
early  part  of  the  reign,  John  Wilkes,  an  able  but  scurrilous  writer, 
attacked  the  policy  of  the  Crown  in  violent  terms  (1763). 

Some  years  later  (1769),  a  writer,  who  signed  himself  “Junius,” 
began  a  series  of  letters  in  a  daily  paper,  in  which  he  handled 
the  King  and  the  “  King’s  friends  ”  still  m<?re  roughly.  An 
attempt  was  made  by  the  Government  to  punish  Wilkes  and  the 
publisher  of  the  “Junius”  letters,  but  it  signally  failed  in  both 
cases.  Public  feeling  .was  plainly  in  favor  of  the  right  of  the 
freest  political  expression,2  which  was  eventually  conceded. 

Up  to  this  time  parliamentary  debates  had  rarely  been  reported. 
In  fact,  under  the  Stuarts  and  the  Tudors,  members  of  Parliament 

1  See  Burke’s  Speeches,  also  Macaulay’s  Essay  on  Warren  Hastings. 

2  Later,  during  the  excitement  caused  by  the  French  Revolution,  there  was  a 
reaction  from  this  feeling,  but  it  was  only  temporary. 


1760-1820]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


339 


would  have  run  the  risk  of  imprisonment  if  their  criticisms  of 
royalty  had  been  made  public ;  but  now  (1771)  the  papers 
began  to  contain  the  speeches  and  votes  of  both  Houses  on 
important  questions.  Every  effort  was  made  to  suppress  these 
reports,  but  again  the  press  gained  the  day.  Henceforth  the 
nation  could  learn  how  far  its  representatives  really  represented  the 
will  of  the  people,  and  so  could  hold  them  strictly  accountable, 
—  a  matter  of  vital  importance  in  every  free  government.1 

Another  field  of  reform  was  also  found.  The  times  were  brutal. 
The  pillory  still  stood  in  the  centre  of  London  ;  2  and  if  the  un¬ 
fortunate  offender  who  was  put  in  it  escaped  with  a  shower  of 
mud  and  other  unsavory  missiles,  instead  of  clubs  and  brickbats, 
he  was  lucky  indeed.  Gentlemen  of  fashion  arranged  pleasure 
parties  to  visit  the  penitentiaries  to  see  the  wretched  women 
whipped.  The  whole  code  of  criminal  law  was  savagely  vin¬ 
dictive.  Capital  punishment  was  inflicted  for  upwards  of  two 
hundred  offences,  many  of  which  would  now  be  thought  to  be 
sufficiently  punished  by  one  or  two  months’  imprisonment  in  the 
house  of  correction. 

Not  only  men,  but  women  and  children  even,  were  hanged  for 
pilfering  goods  or  food  worth  a  few  shillings.3  The  jails  were 
crowded  with  poor  wretches  whom  want  had  driven  to  theft,  and 
who  were  “worked  off”  on  the  gallows  every  Monday  morning 
in  batches  of  a  dozen  or  twenty,  in  sight  of  the  jeering,  drunken 
crowds  who  gathered  to  witness  their  death  agonies. 

Through  the  efforts  of  Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  Jeremy  Bentham, 
and  others,  a  reform  was  effected  in  this  bloody  code.  Next,  the 
labors  of  the  philanthropic  John  Howard,  and  later  of  Elizabeth 
Fry,  purified  the  jails  of  abuses  which  had  made  them  not  only 
dens  of  suffering  and  disease,  but  schools  of  crime  as  well. 

The  laws  respecting  punishment  for  debt  were  also  changed  for 
the  better,  and  thousands  of  miserable  beings  who  were  without 

1  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxvi,  §  30. 

2  The  pillory  (see  §  580)  was  not  abolished  until  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria. 

3  Five  shillings,  or  $1.25,  was  the  hanging  limit;  anything  stolen  above  that  sum 
in  money  or  goods  might  send  the  thief  to  the  gallows. 


340  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


means  to  satisfy  their  creditors  were  set  free,  instead  of  being  kept 
in  useless  life-long  imprisonment.  At  the  same  time  Clarkson, 
Wilberforce,  Fox,  and  Pitt  were  endeavoring  to  abolish  that  relic 
of  barbarism,  the  African  slave  trade.  After  twenty  years  of  per¬ 
sistent  effort  both  in  Parliament  and  out,  they  at  last  accomplished 
that  great  and  beneficent  work  (1807). 

605.  War  with  France  (1793-1805);  Battle  of  the  Nile  ;  Tra¬ 
falgar  ;  Spain.  —  Near  the  close  of  the  century  (1789)  the  French 
Revolution  broke  out.  It  was  a  violent  and  successful  attempt  to 
destroy  those  feudal  institutions  which  France  had  outgrown,  and 
which  had,  as  we  have  seen,  disappeared  gradually  in  England 
after  the  rebellion  of  Wat  Tyler  (§§  304,  368,  534).  At  first  the 
revolutionists  received  the  hearty  sympathy  of  many  of  the  Whig 
party,  but  .after  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI  and  Queen  Marie 
Antoinette,1  England  became  alarmed  not  only  at  the  horrible 
scenes  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  but  at  the  establishment  of  that 
democratic  republic  which  seemed  to  justify  them,  and  joined 
an  alliance  of  the  principal  European  powers  for  the  purpose  of 
restoring  the  French  monarchy. 

Napoleon  had  now  become  the  real  head  of  the  French  nation, 
and  seemed  bent  on  making  himself  master  of  all  Europe.  He 
undertook  an  expedition  against  Egypt  and  the  East  which  was 
intended  as  a  stepping-stone  toward  the  ultimate  conquest  of  the 
English  empire  in  India,  but  his  plans  were  frustrated  by  Nelson’s 
victory  over  the  French  fleet  at  the  battle  of  the  Nile. 

With  the  assistance  of  Spain,  Napoleon  next  prepared  to  invade 
England,  and  was  so  confident  of  success  that  he  caused  a  gold 
medal  to  be  struck,  bearing  the  inscription,  “  Descent  upon 
England.”  “Struck  at  London,  1804.”'  But  the  combined 
French  and  Spanish  fleets  on  whose  cooperation  Napoleon  was 
depending  were  driven  by  the  English  into  the  harbor  of  Cadiz, 
and  the  great  expedition  was  postponed  for  another  year.2  When, 

1  See  Burke’s  Reflections  cm  the  French  Revolution,  “  Death  of  Marie  Antoinette.” 

-  In  1801  Robert  Fulton  proposed  to  Napoleon  that  he  should  build  war-ships  to 
be  propelled  by  steam.  The  proposal  was  submitted  to  a  committee  of  French  scien¬ 
tists,  who  reported  that  it  was  absurd.  Had  Napoleon  acted  on  Fulton’s  suggestion, 
his  descent  on  England  might  have  been  successful. 


1760-1820]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


341 


in  the  autumn  of  1805,  they  left  Cadiz  harbor,  Lord  Nelson  lay 
waiting  for  them  off  Cape  Trafalgar,1  near  by. 

Two  days  later  he  descried  the  enemy  at  daybreak.  The  men 
on  both  sides  felt  that  the  decisive  struggle  was  at  hand.  With 
the  exception  of  a  long,  heavy  swell  the  sea  was  calm,  with  a  light 
breeze,  but  sufficient  to  bring  the  two  fleets  gradually  within 
range. 

“As  they  drifted  on  their  path 
There  was  silence  deep  as  death  ; 

And  the  boldest  held  his  breath 
For  a  time.”  2 

Just  before  the  action  Nelson  ran  up  this  signal  to  the  mast-  , 
head  of  his  ship,  where  all  might  see  it  :  “  England  expects 
every  man  to  do  his  duty.”  The  answer  to  it  was  three  ring¬ 
ing  cheers  from  the  entire  fleet,  and  the  fight  began.  When  it 
ended,  Napoleon’s  boasted  navy  was  no  more.  Trafalgar  Square, 
in  the  heart  of  London,  with  its  tall  column  bearing  aloft  a  statue 
of  Nelson,  commemorates  the  decisive  victory,  which  was  dearly 
bought  with  the  life  of  the  great  admiral. 

The  battle  of  Trafalgar  snuffed  out  Napoleon’s  projected  inva¬ 
sion  of  England.  He  had  lost  his  ships,  and  their  commander 
in  his  despair  committed  suicide.  The  French  emperor  could 
no  longer  hope  to  bridge  “  the  ditch,”  as  he  derisively  called 
the  boisterous  Channel,  whose  waves  rose  like  a  wall  between 
him  and  the  island  which  he  hated  (§35).  A  few  years  later, 
Napoleon,  who  had  taken  possession  of  Spain,  and  placed  his 
brother  on  the  throne,  was  driven  from  that  country  by  Sir 
Arthur  Wellesley,  destined  to  be  better  known  as  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  and  the  crown  was  restored  to  the  Spanish  nation. 

606.  Second  War  with  the  United  States,  1812-1815. — The 
United  States  waged  its  first  war  with  Great  Britain  to  gain  an 
independent  national  existence;  in  1812  it  declared  a  second 
war  to  secure  its  personal  and  maritime  rights.  During  the  long 
and  desperate  struggle  between  England  and  France,  each  nation 

1  Cape  Trafalgar  (Traf-al'gar),  on  the  southern  coast  of  Spain. 

2  Campbell’s  Battle  of  the  Baltic,  but  applicable  as  well  to  Trafalgar. 


342  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


had  prohibited  neutral  powers  from  commercial  intercourse  with 
the  other,  or  with  any  country  friendly  to  the  other. 

Furthermore,  the  English  Government  had  laid  down  the 
principle  that  a  person  born  on  British  soil  could  not  become  a 
citizen  of  another  nation,  but  that  “  once  an  Englishman  always 
an  Englishman  ”  was  the  only  true  doctrine.  In  accordance  with 
that  theory,  it  claimed  the  right  to  search  American  ships  and 
take  from  them  and  force  into  their  own  service  any  seaman  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  of  British  birth.  In  this  way  Great  Britain  had  seized 
more  than  six  thousand  men,  and  notwithstanding  their  protest 
that  they  were  American  citizens,  either  by  birth  or  by  natural¬ 
ization,  had  compelled  them  to  enter  the  English  navy. 

Other  points  in  dispute  between  the  two  countries  were  in  a 
fair  way  of  being  settled  amicably,  but  there  appeared  to  be  no 
method  of  coming  to  terms  in  regard  to  the  question  of  search 
and  impressment,  which  was  the  most  important  of  all,  since, 
though  the  demand  of  the  United  States  was,  in  the  popular 
phrase  of  the  day,  for  “  Free  Trade  and  Sailors’  Rights,”  it  was 
the  last  which  was  especially  emphasized. 

In  1812  war  against  Great  Britain  was  declared,  and  an  attack 
made  on  Canada  which  resulted  in  the  American  forces  being 
driven  back.  During  the  war  British  troops  landed  in  Maryland, 
burned  the  Capitol  and  other  public  buildings  in  Washington,  and 
destroyed  the  Congressional  Library. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  American  navy  had  unexpected  and 
extraordinary  successes  on  the  ocean  and  the  lakes.  Out  of  fifteen 
sea  combats  with  approximately  equal  forces,  the  Americans  gained 
twelve.1  The  contest  closed  with  the  signal  defeat  of  the  English 
at  New  Orleans,  when  General  Andrew  Jackson  (1815)  completely 
routed  the  forces  led  by  Sir  Edward  Pakenham,  brother-in-law  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington.  The  right  of  search  was  thenceforth 
dropped,  although  it  was  not  formally  abandoned  by  Great  Britain 
until  more  than  forty  years  later  (1856). 

607.  Battle  of  Waterloo,  1815.  —  On  Sunday,  June  18,  1815, 
the  English  war  against  Napoleon,  which  had  been  carried  on 

1  Montgomery’s  Leading  Facts  of  American  History,  §  228. 


760-1S20]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


343 


almost  constantly  since  his  accession  to  power,  culminated  in  the 
decisive  battle  of  Waterloo.1  Napoleon  had  crossed  the  Belgian 
frontier,  in  order  that  he  might  come  up  with  the  British  before 
they  could  form  a  junction  with  their  Prussian  allies.  All  the  pre¬ 
vious  night  the  rain  had  fallen  in  torrents,  and  when  the  soldiers 
rose  from  their  cheerless  bivouac  in  the  trampled  and  muddy 
fields  of  rye,  a  drizzling  rain  was  still  falling. 

Napoleon  planned  the  battle  with  the  purpose  of  destroying 
first  the  English  and  then  the  Prussian  forces,  but  Wellington 
held  his  own  against  the  furious  attacks  of  the  French.  It 
was  evident,  however,  that  even  the  “  Iron  Duke,”  as  he  was 
called,  could  not  continue  to  withstand  the  terrible  assaults  many 
hours  longer. 

As  time  passed  on,  and  he  saw  his  solid  squares  melting  away 
under  the  murderous  French  fire,  as  line  after  line  of  his  soldiers 
coming  forward  silently  stepped  into  the  places  of  their  fallen 
comrades,  while  the  expected  Prussian  reinforcements  still  delayed 
their  appearance,  the  English  commander  exclaimed,  “  O  that 
night  or  Bliicher 2  would  come  !  ”  At  last  Bliicher  with  his  Prus¬ 
sians  did  come,  and  as  Grouchy,3  the  leader  of  a  division  on 
which  Napoleon  was  counting,  did  not,  Waterloo  was  finally  won 
by  the  combined  strength  of  the  allies.  Not  long  afterward 
Napoleon  was  sent  to  die  a  prisoner  on  the  desolate  rock  of 
St.  Helena. 

When  all  was  over,  Wellington  said  to  Bliicher,  as  he  stood  by 
him  on  a  little  eminence  looking  down  upon  the  field  covered 
with  the  dead  and  dying,  “  A  great  victory  is  the  saddest  thing 
on  earth,  except  a  great  defeat.” 

With  that  victory  ended  the  second  Hundred  Years’  War  of 
England  with  France,  which  began  with  the  War  of  the  Spanish 
Succession  (1704)  (§  557)  under  Marlborough.  The  original 
object  of  the  war  was,  first,  to  humble  the  power  that  threatened 
the  independence  of  England,  and,  secondly,  to  protect  those 
colonies  which  had  now  separated  from  the  mother-country 

1  Waterloo :  near  Brussels,  Belgium.  2  Bliicher  (Bloo'ker). 

3  Grouchy  (Grou'she1). 


344  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


and  had  become,  partly  through  French  help,  the  republic  of  the 
United  States  of  America. 

608.  Increase  of  the  National  Debt;  Taxation. — Owing  to 
these  hundred  years  and  more  of  war,  the  National  Debt  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  (§  552),  which  in  1688  was  much  less  than  a 
million  of  pounds,  had  now  reached  the  enormous  amount  of  over 
nine  hundred  millions  (or  $4,500,000,000),  bearing  yearly  interest 
at  the  rate  of  more  than  $1 60,000,000.*  So  great  had  been  the 
strain  on  the  finances  of  the  country,  that  the  Bank  of  England 
suspended  payment,  and  many  heavy  failures  occurred.  In  addi¬ 
tion  to  this,  a  succession  of  bad  -harvests  sent  up  the  price  of 
wheat  to  such  a  point  that  at  one  time  an  ordinary  sized  loaf  of 
bread  cost  the  farm  laborer  more  than  half  a  day’s  wages. 

Taxes  had  gone  on  increasing  until  it  seemed  as  though  the 
people  could  not  endure  the  burden.  As  Sydney  Smith  declared, 
with  entire  truth,  there  were  duties  on  everything.  They  began, 
he  said,  in  childhood  with  “  the  boy’s  taxed  top  ”  ;  they  followed 
to  old  age,  until  at  last  “  the  dying  Englishman,  pouring  his  taxed 
medicine  into  a  taxed  spoon,  flung  himself  back  on  a  taxed  bed, 
and  died  in  the  arms  of  an  apothecary  who  had  paid  a  tax  of  a 
hundred  pounds  for  the  privilege  of  putting  him  to  death.”  2 

609.  The  Irish  Parliament;  the  Irish  Rebellion  (1798)  ;  Union 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  (1800).  —  For  a  century  after  the 
battle  of  the  Boyne  (§  551)  Ireland  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
had  a  history.  The  iron  hand  of  English  despotism  had  crushed 
the  spirit  out  of  the  inhabitants,  and  they  suffered  in  silence.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  first  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  destitution  of  the 
people  was  so  great  that  Dean  Swift,  in  bitter  mockery  of  the 
Government’s  neglect,  published  what  he  called  li?s  “  Modest 
Proposal.”  He  suggested  that  the  misery  of  the  half-starved 
peasants  might  be  relieved  by  allowing  them  to  eat  their  own 
children  or  else  sell  them  to  the  butchers. 

But  a  new  attempt  was  now  made  to  improve  the  political  con¬ 
dition  of  the  wretched  country.  Burke  (§  599)  had  already  tried 

1  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  “  National  Debt.” 

2  Sydney  Smith’s  Essays,  “  Review  of  Seybert’s  Annals  of  the  United  States.” 


i76o-  1820]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


345 


to  secure  a  fair  measure  of  commercial  liberty  for  the  island,  but 
without  success.  Since  the  reign  of  Henry  VII  the  so-called 
“  free  Parliament  ”  of  Ireland  had  been  bound  hand  and  foot  by 
Poynings’  Act  (§  381,  note).  The  eminent  Irish  orator,  Henry 
Grattan,  now  urged  the  repeal  of  that  law  with  all  his  impassioned 
eloquence.  He  was  seconded  in  his  efforts  by  the  powerful 
influence  of  Fox,  in  the  English  House  of  Commons.  Finally, 
the  obnoxious  act  was  repealed  (1782),  and  an  independent  Irish 
Parliament,  to  which  Grattan  was  elected,  met  in  Dublin. 

But  although  more  than  three-quarters  of  the  Irish  people  were 
Catholics,  no  person  of  that  faith  was  permitted  to  sit  in  the  new 
Parliament,  or  to  vote  for  the  election  of  a  member.  This  was 
not  the  only  injustice,  for  many  Protestants  in  Belfast  and  the 
north  of  Ireland  had  no  right  to  be  represented  in  it.  Such  a  state 
of  things  could  not  fail  to  excite  angry  protest,  and  Grattan,  with 
other  Protestants  in  Parliament,  labored  for  reform.  The  discon¬ 
tent  finally  led  to  the  organization  of  an  association  called  the 
“  Society  of  United  Irishmen.”  The  leaders  of  that  movement 
hoped  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  Catholics  and  Protestants, 
and  to  obtain  fair  and  full  representation  for  both  in  the  Irish 
Parliament.  A  measure  of  political  reform  was  secured  (1793), 
but  it  did  not  go  far  enough  to  give  the  relief  desired. 

Eventually  the  Society  of  United  Irishmen  became  a  revolu¬ 
tionary  organization  which  sought,  by  the  help  of  the  French,  to 
make  Ireland  an  independent  republic.  The  sprigs  of  shamrock  • 
or  the  shamrock-colored  badges  displayed  by  these  men  gave  a 
new  significance  to  “  the  wearing  of  the  green.”  1  By  this  time 
many  Protestants  had  withdrawn  from  the  organization,  and  many 
Catholics  refused  to  ask  help  from  the  French  revolutionary  party, 
who  were  hostile  to  all  churches  and  to  all  religion. 

Then  a  devoted  band  of  Catholics  in  the  south  of  Ireland 
resolved  to  rise  and,  trusting  to  their  own  right  arms,  to  strike 
for  independence.  A  frightful  rebellion  broke  out  (1798),  marked 
by  all  the  intense  hatred  springing  from  rival  races  and  rival  creeds, 

1  See  the  famous  Irish  song  of  the  “  Wearin’  o’  the  Green  ” ;  see,  too,  in 
Montgomery’s  Heroic  Ballads,  the  “  Shan  Van  Vocht,”  Ginn  &  Company. 


346  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


and  aggravated  by  the  peasants’  hatred  of  oppressive  landlords. 
Both  sides  perpetrated  horrible  atrocities.  The  Government 
employed  a  large  force  of  Orangemen,1  or  extreme  Protestants, 
to  help  suppress  the  insurrection.  They  did  it  with  such  remorse¬ 
less  cruelty  that  History  shrinks  from  staining  her  pages  with  the 
story  of  its  horrors. 

Matters  now  came  to  a  crisis.  William  Pitt,  son  of  the  late 
Earl  of  Chatham  (§  599),  was  Prime  Minister.  He  believed  that 
the  best  interests  of  both  Ireland  and  England  demanded  their 
political  union.  He  devoted  all  his  energies  to  accomplishing 
the  work.  The  result  was  that  in  the  last  year  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  English  Government  succeeded,  by  the  most  unscru¬ 
pulous  use  of  money,  in  gaining  the  desired  end.  Lord  Cornwallis, 
acting  as  Pitt’s  agent,  confessed  with  shame  that  he  bought  up  a 
sufficient  number  of  members  of  the  Irish  Parliament  to  secure  a 
vote  in  favor  of  union  with  Great  Britain.  In  1800  the  two 
countries  were  joined  —  in  name  at  least  —  under  the  title  of 
the  “  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.”  2 

Pitt  used  all  his  powerful  influence  to  obtain  for  Ireland  a  full 
and  fair  representation  in  the  united  Parliament  (1801).  He  urged 
that  Catholics  as  well  as  Protestants  should  be  eligible  for  election 
to  that  body.  But  the  King  positively  refused  to  listen  to  his 
Prime  Minister.  He  even  declared  that  it  would  be  a  violation  of 
his  coronation  oath  for  him  to  grant  such  a  request.  The  conse- 
.  quence  was  that  not  a  single  Catholic  was  admitted  to  the 
Imperial  Parliament  until  thirty  years  later  (§  618). 

Two  years  after  the  first  Imperial  Parliament  met  in  London 
the  Irish  patriot  Robert  Emmet  made  a  desperate  effort  to  free 
his  country  (1803).  To  his  mind  the  union  of  England  with 
Ireland  was  simply  “  the  union  of  the  shark  with  its  prey.”  He 
staked  his  life  on  the  cause  of  independence ;  he  lost,  and  paid 
the  forfeit  on  the  scaffold. 


1  Orangemen :  the  Protestants  of  the  north  of  Ireland,  who  had  taken  the  side  of 
William  of  Orange  in  the  Revolution  of  1688-1689.  See  §  551.  They  wore  an  “  orange 
ribbon  ”  as  their  badge,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  Catholic  party,  who  wore  green 
badges.!  2  The  first  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  met  in  1801. 


1760-1820]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


347 


But  notwithstanding  Emmet’s  hatred  of  the  union,  it  resulted 
advantageously  to  Ireland  in  at  least  two  respects.  First,  more 
permanent  peace  was  secured  to  that  distracted  and  long-suffer¬ 
ing  country.  Secondly,  the  Irish  people  made  decided  gains 
commercially.  The  duties  on  their  farm  products  were  removed, 
at  least  in  large  degree,  and  the  English  ports  hitherto  closed 
against  them  were  thrown  open.  The  duties  on  their  manu¬ 
factured  goods  seem  to  have  been  taken  off  at  that  time  only 
in  part.1  Later,  absolute  freedom  of  trade  was  secured. 

610.  Material  Progress  ;  Canals  ;  the  Steam  Engine,  1785  ; 
Distress  of  the  Working  Class  ;  the  North  of  England.  —  The 
reign  of  George  III  was  in  several  directions  one  of  marked 
progress,  especially  in  England.  Just  after  the  King’s  acces¬ 
sion  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater  constructed  a  canal  from  his 
coal  mine  in  Worsley  to  Manchester,  a  distance  of  seven  miles. 
Later,  he  extended  it  to  Liverpool,  and  it  has  recently  become 
the  “  Manchester  Ship  Canal.”  The  Duke  of  Bridgewater’s  work 
was  practically  the  commencement  of  a  system  which  has  since 
developed  so  widely  that  the  canals  of  England  now  exceed  in 
length  its  navigable  rivers.  The  two  form  such  a  complete  net¬ 
work  of  water  communication  that  it  is  said  that  no  place  in 
the  realm  is  more  than  fifteen  miles  distant  from  this  means  of 
transportation,  which  connects  all  the  large  towns  with  each  other 
and  with  the  chief  ports. 

In  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  James  Watt  obtained 
the  first  patent  (1769)  for  his  improved  steam  engine  (§  570), 
but  did  not  siicceed  in  making  it  a  business  success  until  1785. 
The  story  is  told  2  that  he  took  a  working  model  of  it  to  show  to 

1  See  May’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  Lecky’s  England  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century ;  but  compare  O’Connor  Morris’  recent  work  on  “  Ireland, 
from  1798-1898,”  page  58. 

2  This  story  is  told  also  of  Boulton,  Watt’s  partner.  See  Smiles’  Lives  of 
Boulton  and  Watt,  page  1.  Newcomen  had  invented  a  rude  steam  engine  in  1705, 
which  in  1712  came  into  use  to  some  extent  for  pumping  water  out  of  coal  mines. 
But  his  engine  was  too  clumsy  and  too  wasteful  of  fuel  to  be  used  by  manufacturers. 
Boulton  and  Watt  built  the  first  steam-engine  works  in  England  at  Soho,  a  suburb 
of  Birmingham,  in  1775;  but  it  was  not  until  1785  that  they  began  to  do  sufficient 
business  to  make  it  evident  that  they  were  on  their  way  to  success. 


348  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 

the  King.  His  majesty  patronizingly  asked  him,  “Well,  my 
man,  what  have  you  to  sell  ?  ”  The  inventor  promptly  answered, 
“What  kings  covet,  may  it  please  your  Majesty, — power!" 
The  story  is  perhaps  too  good  to  be  true,  but  the  fact  of  the 
“power”  could  not  be  denied,  —  power,  too,  not  simply  mechan¬ 
ical,  but,  in  its  results,  moral  and  political  as  well. 

Such  was  the  increase  of  machinery  driven  by  steam,  and  such 
the  improvements  made  by  Hargreaves,  Arkwright,  and  Cromp¬ 
ton  in  machinery  for  spinning  and  weaving  cotton,  that  much 
distress  arose  among  the  working  classes.  The  price  of  bread 
was  growing  higher  and  higher,  while  in  many  districts  skilled 
operatives  could  not  earn  by  their  utmost  efforts  eight  shillings  a 
week.  They  saw  their  hand-labor  supplanted  by  patent  “  mon¬ 
sters  of  iron  and  fire,”  which  never  grew  weary,  which  subsisted 
on  water  and  coal,  and  never  asked  for  wages.  Led  by  a  man 
named  Ludd  (1811),  the  starving  workmen  attacked  the  mills, 
broke  the  machinery  in  pieces,  and  sometimes  burnt  the.  build¬ 
ings.  The  riots  were  at  length  suppressed,  and  a  number  of  the 
leaders  executed  ;  but  a  great  change  for  the  better  was  at  hand, 
and  improved  machinery  driven  by  steam  was  soon  to  remedy 
the  evils  it  had  seemingly  created.  It  led  to  an  enormous 
demand  for  cotton.  This  helped  to  stimulate  cotton-growing  in 
th,e  LTnited  States  of  America  as  well  as  to  encourage  industry 
in  Great  Britain. 

Up  to  this  period  the  north  of  England  remained  the  poorest 
part  of  the  country.  The  population  was  sparse,  ignorant,  and 
unprosperous.  It  was  in  the  south  that  improvements  originated. 
In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  the  North  fought  against  the 
dissolution  of  the  monasteries  (§§  404,  409)  ;  in  Elizabeth’s  reign 
it  resisted  Protestantism  ;  in  that  of  George  I  it  sided  with  the 
so-called  “  Pretender”  (§  584). 

But  steam  wrought  a  great  change.  Factories  were  built, 
population  increased,  cities  sprang  up,  and  wealth  grew  apace. 
Birmingham,  Manchester,  Leeds,  Nottingham,  Leicester,  Sheffield, 
and  Liverpool  made  the  north  a  new  country.  The  saying  is 
now  current  that  “  what  Lancashire  thinks  to-day,  England  will 


760-1820]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


349 


think  to-morrow.”  So  much  for  James  Watt’s  “power”  and  its 
results. 

61 1.  Discovery  of  Oxygen  (1774);  Introduction  of  Gas;  the 
Safety  Lamp;  Steam  Navigation,  1807.  —  Notwithstanding  the 
progress  that  had  been  made  in  many  departments  of  knowledge, 
the  science  of  chemistry  remained  almost  stationary  until  (1774) 
Dr.  Joseph  Priestley  discovered  oxygen,  the  most  abundant,  as 
well  as  the  most  important,  element  in  nature. 

That  discovery  not  only  “  laid  the  foundation  of  modern 
chemical  science,”  1  but,  as  Professor  Tiebig  remarks,  “  the 
knowledge  of  the  composition  of  the  atmosphere,  of  the  solid 
crust  of  the  earth,  of  water,  and  of  their  influence  upon  the  life 
of  plants  and  animals  was  linked  with  it.”  It  proved,  also,  of 
direct  practical  utility,  since  the  successful  pursuit  of  innumerable 
trades  and  manufactures,  with  the  profitable  separation  of  metals 
from  their  ores,  stands  in  close  connection  with  the  facts  which 
Priestley’s  experiments  made  known. 

As  intellectual  light  spread,  so  also  did  material  light.  It  was 
not  until  near  the  close  of  the  reign  of  George  III  that  London 
could  be  said  to  be  lighted  at  night.  A  few  feeble  oil  lamps 
were  in  use,  but  the  streets  were  dark  and  dangerous,  and  high¬ 
way  robberies  were  frequent.  At  length  (1815)  a  company  was 
formed  to  light  the  city  with  gas.  After  much  opposition  from 
those  who  were  in  the  whale-oil  interest  the  enterprise  succeeded. 
The  new  light,  as  Miss  Martineau  said,  did  more  to  prevent  crime 
than  all  that  the  Government  had  accomplished  since  the  days  of 
Alfred.  It  changed,  too,  the  whole  aspect  of  the  English  capital, 
though  it  was  only  the  forerunner  of  the  electric  light,  which  has 
since  changed  it  even  more. 

The  sight  of  the  great  city  now,  when  viewed  at  night  from 
Highgate  archway  on  the  north,  or  looking  down  the  Thames 
from  Westminster  Bridge,  is  something  never  to  be  forgotten.  It 
gives  one  a  realizing  sense  of  the  immensity  of  “  this  province 
covered  with  houses,”  which  cannot  be  got  so  well  in  any  other 
way.  It  brings  to  mind,  too,  those  lines  expressive  of  the 
1  See  Professor  Youmans’  New  Chemistry. 


35©  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


contrasts  of  wealth  and  poverty,  success  and  failure,  inevitable  in 
such  a  place  :  — 

“  O  gleaming  lamps  of  London,  that  gem  the  city’s  crown, 

What  fortunes  lie  within  you,  O  lights  of  London  town  ! 

O  cruel  lamps  of  London,  if  tears  your  light  could  drown, 

Your  victims’  eyes  would  weep  them,  O  lights  of  London  town.”1 

The  same  year  in  which  gas  was  introduced,  Sir  Humphry 
Davy  invented  the  miner’s  safety  lamp.  Without  seeking  a 
patent,  he  generously  gave  his  invention  to  the  world,  finding 
his  reward  in  the  knowledge  that  it  would  be  the  means  of 
saving  thousands  of  lives  wherever  men  are  called  to  work 
underground. 

Since  Watt  had  demonstrated  the  value  of  steam  for  driving 
machinery  (§  610),  a  number  of  inventors  had  been  experiment¬ 
ing  with  the  new  power,  in  the  hope  that  they  might  apply  it  to 
propelling  vessels.  In  1807  Robert  Fulton,  an  American,  built 
the  first  steamboat,  and  made  the  voyage  from  New  York  to 
Albany  in  it.  Shortly  afterward  his  vessel  began  to  make  regular 
trips  on  the  Hudson.  A  number  of  years  later  a  similar  boat 
began  to  carry  passengers  on  the  Clyde,  in  Scotland.  Finally,  in 
1 8 19,  the  bold  undertaking  was  made  of  crossing  the  Atlantic 
by  steam.  An  American  steamship,  the  Savannah,  of  about 
three  hundred  tons,  set  the  example  by  a  voyage  from  the 
United  States  to  Liverpool.  Dr.  Lardner,  an  English  scientist, 
had  proved  to  his  own  satisfaction  that  ocean  steam  navigation 
was  impracticable.  The  book  containing  the  doctor’s  demonstra¬ 
tion  was  brought  to  America  by  the  Savannah  on  her  return. 

Twenty-one  years  afterward  the  Cunard  line  was  established. 
Since  then  fleets  of  steamers  ranging  from  five  thousand  to 
more  than  twenty  thousand  tons  have  been  built.  They  now 
make  passages  from  continent  to  continent  in  a  less  number  of 
days  than  the  ordinary  sailing-vessels  formerly  required  weeks. 
The  fact  that  during  a  period  of  more  than  sixty  years  one  of 
these  lines  has  never  lost  a  passenger  is  conclusive  proof  that 
1  From  the  play  The  Lights  of  London. 


1760-1820]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


351 


Providence  is  on  the  side  of  steam,  when  steam  has  men  that 
know  how  to  handle  it. 

612.  Literature;  Art;  Education;  Dress.  —  The  reign  of 
George  III  is  marked  by  a  long  list  of  names  eminent  in 
letters  and  art.  First  in  point  of  time  among  these  stands 
Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  the  compiler  of  the  first  English  diction¬ 
ary  worthy  of  the  name,  and  that  on  which  those  of  our  own 
day  are  based  to  a  considerable  extent.  He  was  also  the 
author  of  the  story  of  “  Rasselas,”  —  that  notable  satire  on  dis¬ 
content  and  the  search  after  happiness.  Next  stands  Johnson’s 
friend,  Oliver  Goldsmith,  famous  for  his  genius,  his  wit,  and  his 
improvidence,  which  was  always  getting  him  into  trouble,  but 
still  more  famous  for  his  poems,  and  his  novel,  “  The  Vicar  of 
Wakefield.” 

Edward  Gibbon,  David  Hume,  author  of  the  well-known 
“  History  of  England,”  and  Adam  Smith  come  next  in  time.  In 
1776  Gibbon  published  his  “  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Em¬ 
pire,”  which  after  more  than  a  hundred  years  still  stands  the  ablest 
history  of  the  subject  in  any  language.  In  the  same  year  Adam 
Smith  issued  “  An  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Causes  of  the 
Wealth  of  Nations,”  which  had  an  immediate  and  permanent  effect 
on  legislation  respecting  commerce,  trade,  and  finance.  During 
this  period,  also,  Sir  William  Blackstone  became  prominent  as  a 
writer  on  law,  and  Edmund  Burke,  the  distinguished  orator  and 
statesman,  wrote  his  “  Reflections  on  the  French  Revolution.” 

The  poets,  Burns,  Byron,  Shelley,  and  Keats,  with  Sheridan,  the 
orator  and  dramatist,  and  Sterne,  the  humorist,  belong  to  this 
reign ;  so,  too,  does  the  witty  satirist,  Sydney  Smith,  and  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  whose  works,  like  those  of  Shakespeare,  have  “  made 
the  dead  past  live  again.”  Then  again,  Maria  Edgeworth  and 
Jane  Austen  have  left  admirable  pictures  of  the  age  in  their  stories 
of  Irish  and  English  life.  Coleridge  and  Wordsworth  began  to 
attract  attention  toward  the  last  of  this  period,  and  to  be  much 
read  by  those  who  loved  the  poetry  of  thought  and  the  poetry  of 
nature  ;  while,  early  in  the  next  reign,  Charles  Lamb  published 
his  delightful  “  Essays  of  Elia.” 


352  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1760-1820 


In  art  we  have  the  first  English  painters  and  engravers. 
Hogarth,  who  died  a  few  years  after  the  beginning  of  the  reign, 
was  celebrated  for  his  coarse  but  perfect  representations  of 
low  life  'and  street  scenes ;  and  his  series  of  Election  pictures 
with  his  “Beer  Lane”  and  “Gin  Alley”  are  valuable  for  the 
insight  they  give  into  the  history  of  the  times. 

The  chief  portrait  painters  were  Reynolds,  Lawrence,  and 
Gainsborough,  the  last  of  whom  afterward  became  noted  for 
his  landscapes.  They  were  followed  by  Wilkie,  whose  pictures 
of  “  The  Rent  Day,”  “  The  Reading  of  the  Will,”  and  many 
others,  tell  a  story  of  interest  to  every  one  who  looks  at  them. 

Last  came  Turner,  who  in  some  respects  surpassed  all  former 
artists  in  his  power  of  reproducing  scenes  in  nature.  At  the  same 
time,  Bewick,  whose  cuts  used  to  be  the  delight  of  every  child 
that  read  ‘L-Esop’s  Fables,”  gave  a  new  impulse  to  wood-engraving, 
while  Flaxman  rose  to  be  the  leading  English  sculptor,  and  Wedge- 
wood  introduced  useful  and  beautiful  articles  of  pottery. 

In  common-school  education  little  advance  had  been  made  for 
many  generations.  In  the  country  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
were  nearly  as  ignorant  as  they  were  in  the  darkest  part  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Hardly  a  peasant  over  forty  years  of  age  could  be 
found  who  could  read  a  verse  in  the  Bible,  and  not  one  in  ten 
could  write  his  name. 

There  were  no  cheap  books  or  newspapers,  no  railroads,  no 
system  of  public  instruction.  The  poor  seldom  left  the  counties 
in  which  they  were  born.  They  knew  nothing  of  what  was  going 
on  in  the  world.  Their  education  was  wholly  of  that  practical 
kind  which  comes  from  work  and  things,  not  from  books  and 
teachers ;  yet  many  of  them  with  only  these  simple  helps  found 
out  two  secrets  which  the  highest  culture  sometimes  misses, — 
how  to  be  useful  and  how  to  be  happy.1 

The  close  of  George  Ill’s  reign  marks  the  beginning  of  the 
present  age.  It  was  indicated  in  many  ways,  and  among  others 
by  the  change  in  dress.  Gentlemen  were  leaving  off  the  pictu¬ 
resque  costumes  of  the  past,  —  the  cocked  hats,  elaborate  wigs,  silk 
1  See  Wordsworth’s  poem  Resolution  and  Independence. 


760-1820]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


353 


stockings,  ruffles,  velvet  coats,  and  swords,  —  and  gradually  put¬ 
ting  on  the  plain  democratic  garb,  sober  in  cut  and  color,  by 
which  we  know  them  to-day. 

613.  Last  Days  of  George  III.  —  In  1820  George  III  died  at 
the  age  of  seventy-eight.  During  ten  years  he  had  been  blind, 
deaf,  and  insane,  having  lost  his  reason  not  very  long  after  the 
jubilee,  which  celebrated  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  reign  in  1809. 
Once,  in  a  lucid  interval,  he  was  found  by  the  Queen  singing  a 
hymn  and  playing  an  accompaniment  on  the  harpsichord. 

He  then  knelt  and  prayed  aloud  for  her,  for  his  family,  and  for 
the  nation  ;  and  in  closing,  for  himself,  that  it  might  please  God 
to  avert  his  heavy  calamity,  or  grant  him  resignation  to  bear  it. 
Then  he  burst  into  tears,  and  his  reason  again  fled.1  In  conse¬ 
quence  of  the  incapacity  of  the  King,  his  eldest  son,  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  was  appointed  regent  (1811),  and  on  the  King’s  death 
came  to  the  throne  as  Cxeorge  IV. 

614.  Summary. — The  long  reign  of  George  III,  covering 
sixty  years,  was  in  every  way  eventful.  During  that  time 
England  lost  her  possessions  in  America,  but  gained  India  and 
prepared  the  way  for  getting  possession  of  New  Zealand  and 
Australia.  During  that  period,  also,  Ireland  was  united  to  Great 
Britain.  The  wars  with  France,  which  lasted  more  than  twenty 
years,  ended  in  the  victory  of  Trafalgar  and  the  still  greater 
victory  of  Waterloo.  In  consequence  of  these  wars,  with  that 
of  the  American  Revolution,  the  National  Debt  of  Great  Britain 
rose  to  a  height  which  rendered  the  burden  of  taxation  well-nigh 
insupportable. 

The  second  war  with  the  United  States  in  1812  resulted  in 
completing  American  independence,  and  England  was  forced  to 
relinquish  the  right  of  search.  The  two  greatest  reforms  of  the 
period  were  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  and  the  mitigation 
of  the  laws  against  debt  and  crime  ;  the  chief  material  improve¬ 
ment  was  the  application  of  steam  to  manufacturing  and  to 
navigation. 


1  See  Thackeray’s  Four  Georges. 


354  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1820-1830 


GEORGE  IV  —  1820-1830 


615.  Accession  and  Character  of  George  IV.  —  George  IV, 
eldest  son  of  the  late  king,  came  to  the  throne  in  his  fifty-eighth 
year ;  but,  owing  to  his  father’s  insanity,  he  had  virtually  been 
King  for  nearly  ten  years  (§  613).  His  habits  of  life  had  made 
him  a  selfish,  dissolute  spendthrift,  who,  like  Charles  II,  cared 
only  for  pleasure.  Though  while  Prince  of  Wales  he  had  received 
for  many  years  an  income  of  upwards  of  £100,000,  which  was 
largely  increased  at  a  later  period,  yet  he  was  always  hopelessly 
in  debt. 

Parliament  (1795)  appropriated  over  ^600,000  to  relieve 
him  from  his  most  pressing  creditors,  but  his  wild  extravagance 
soon  involved  him  in  difficulties  again,  so  that  had  it  not  been 
for  help  given  by  the  long-suffering  tax-payers,  his  royal  high¬ 
ness  must  have  become  as  bankrupt  in  purse  as  he  was  in 
character. 

After  his  accession  matters  became  worse  rather  than  better. 
At  his  coronation,  which  cost  the  nation  over  ^200,000,  he 
appeared  in  hired  jewels,  which  he  forgot  to  return,  and  which 
Parliament  had  to  pay  for.  Not  only  did  he  waste  the  nation’s 
money  more  recklessly  than  ever,  but  he  used  whatever  political 
influence  he  had  to  oppose  such  measures  of  reform  as  the  times 
demanded. 

616.  Discontent  and  Conspiracy;  the  “Manchester  Massacre”; 
the  Six  Acts  (1819).  — When  (181 1)  the  Prince  of  Wales  became 
regent  (§  613),  he  desired  to  form  a  Whig  ministry,  not  because 
he  cared  for  Whig  principles  (§  531),  but  solely  for  the  reason 
that  he  would  thereby  be  acting  in  opposition  to  his  father’s 
wishes.  Finding  his  purpose  impracticable,  he  accepted  dory  rule 
(§  531),  and  a  ministry  was  formed  with  Lord  Liverpool  as  Prime 
Minister.  It  had  for  its  main  object  the  exclusion  of  the  Catholics 
from  representation  in  Parliament  (§  609). 

Liverpool  was  a  dull,  well-meaning  man,  who  utterly  failed  to 
comprehend  the  real  tendency  of  the  age.  He  was  the  son  of 
a  c’ommoner  who  had  been  raised  to  the  peerage.  He  had 


1820-1830] 


GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


355 


always  had  a  reputation  for  honest  obstinacy,  and  for  little 
else.  After  he  became  Premier,  Madame  de  Stael,  who  was 
visiting  England,  asked  him  one  day,  “  What  has  become  of  that 
very  stupid  man,  Mr.  Jenkinson?”  “Madame,”  answered  the 
unfortunate  Prime  Minister,  “  he  is  now  Lord  Liverpool.”  1 

From  such  a  Government,  which  continued  in  power  for  fifteen 
years,  nothing  but  trouble  could  be  expected.  The  misery  of  the 
country  was  great.  Food  was  selling  at  famine  prices.  Thou¬ 
sands  were  on  the  verge  of  starvation,  and  tens  of  thousands  did 
not  get  enough  to  eat.  Trade  was  seriously  depressed,  and  multi¬ 
tudes  were  unable  to  obtain  work.  Linder  these  circumstances, 
the  suffering  masses  undertook  to  hold  public  meetings  to  discuss 
the  cause  and  cure  of  these  evils,  but  the  authorities  looked  upon 
these  meetings  with  suspicion,  especially  as  violent  speeches 
against  the  Government  were  often  made,  and  dispersed  them 
as  seditious  and  tending  to  riot  and  rebellion. 

Many  large  towns  at  this  period  had  no  voice  in  legislation. 
At  Birmingham,  which  was  one  of  this  class,  the  citizens  had  met 
and  chosen,  though  without  legal  authority,  a  representative  to 
Parliament.  Manchester,  another  important  manufacturing  town, 
now  determined  to  do  the  same.  The  people  were  warned  not 
to  assemble,  but  they  persisted  in  doing  so,  on  the  ground  that 
peaceful  discussion,  with  the  election  of  a  representative,  was  no 
violation  of  law.  The  meeting  was  held  in  St.  Peter’s  Fields, 
and,  through  the  blundering  of  a  magistrate,  it  ended  in  an 
attack  by  a  body  of  troops,  by  which  many  people  were  wounded 
and  a  number  killed  (1819).  The  bitter  feeling  caused  by  the 
“Manchester  Massacre,”  or  “  Peterloo,”  as  it  was  called,  was 
still  further  aggravated  by  the  passage  of  the  Six  Acts  (1819). 
The  object  of  these  severe  coercive  measures  was  to  make  it 
impossible  for  men  to  take  any  public  action  demanding  politi¬ 
cal  reform.  They  restricted  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of 
the  press,  and  the  right  of  the  people  to  assemble  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  open  discussion  of  the  course  taken  by  the  Government. 

1  Earl’s  English  Premiers,  Vol.  II.  Madame  de  Stael  (Stal) :  a  celebrated 
French  writer. 


356  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1820-1830 


These  harsh  laws  coupled  with  other  repressive  measures  taken 
by  the  Tories  (§  531),  who  were  then  in  power,  led  to  the  “  Cato 
Street  Conspiracy.”  Shortly  after  the  accession  of  George  IV 
a  few  desperate  men  banded  together,  and  meeting  in  a  stable 
in  Cato  Street,  London,  formed  a  plot  to  murder  Lord  Liverpool 
and  the  entire  Cabinet  at  a  dinner  at  which  all  the  ministers  were 
to  be  present. 

The  plot  was  discovered,  and  the  conspirators  speedily  dis¬ 
posed  of  by  the  gallows  or  transportation,  but  nothing  was  done 
to  relieve  the  suffering  which  had  provoked  the  intended  crime. 
No  new  conspiracy  was  attempted,  but  in  the  course  of  the 
next  ten  years  a  silent  revolution  took  place,  which,  as  we  shall 
see  later,  obtained  for  the  people  that  representation  in  Parlia¬ 
ment  which  they  had  hitherto  vainly  attempted  to  get  (§  625). 

617.  Queen  Caroline.  —  While  Prince  of  Wales,  George  IV 
had,  contrary  to  law,  married  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  (1785),^  Roman 
Catholic  lady  of  excellent  character,  and  possessed  of  great  beauty. 
Ten  years  later,  partly  through  royal  compulsion,  and  partly  to 
get  money  to  pay  off  some  of  his  numerous  debts,  the  Prince 
married  his  cousin,  Caroline  of  Brunswick.  The  union  proved 
a  source  of  unhappiness  to  both.  The  princess  lacked  both  dis¬ 
cretion  and  delicacy,  and  her  husband,  who  disliked  her  from  the 
first,  was  reckless  and  brutal  toward  her. 

He  separated  from  her  in  a  year’s  time,  and  as  soon  as  she 
could  she  withdrew  to  the  continent.  On  his  accession  to  the 
throne  the  King  excluded  Queen  Caroline’s  name  from  the  Prayer- 
Book,  and  next  applied  to  Parliament  for  a  divorce  on  the  ground 
of  the  Queen’s  unfaithfulness  to  her  marriage  vows. 

Henry  Brougham,  afterwards  Lord  Brougham,  acted  as  the 
Queen’s  counsel.  No  sufficient  evidence  was  brought  against 
her,  and  the  ministry  declined  to  take  further  action.  It  was 
decided,  however,  that  she  could  not  claim  the  honor  of  coro¬ 
nation,  to  which,  as  Queen-Consort,  she  had  a  right  sanctioned 


1  By  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  of  1772,  no  descendant  of  George  II  could  make 
a  legal  marriage  without  the  consent  of  the  reigning  sovereign,  unless  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  and  the  marriage  was  not  objected  to  by  Parliament. 


1820-1830]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE  357 

by  custom  but  not  secured  by  law.  When  the  King  was  crowned 
(1821),  no  place  was  provided  for  her.  By  the  advice  of  her 
counsel,  she  presented  herself  at  the  entrance  of  Westminster 
Abbey  as  the  coronation  ceremony  was  about  to  begin  ;  but,  by 
order  of  her  husband,  admission  was  refused,  and  she  retired  to 
die,  heart-broken,  a  few  days  after. 

618.  Three  Reforms.  —  Seven  years  later  (1828)  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  a  Tory  (§531)  in  politics,  became  Prime  Minister. 
His  sympathies  in  all  matters  of  legislation  were  with  the  King, 
but  he  made  a  virtue  of  necessity,  and  for  the  time  acted  with 
those  who  demanded  reform.  The  Corporation  Act  (§  524), 
which  was  originally  passed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  and  had 
for  its  object  the  exclusion  of  Dissenters  from  all  town  or  corpo¬ 
rate  offices,  was  now  repealed  ;  henceforth  a  man  might  become 
a  mayor,  alderman,  or  town  officer,  without  belonging  to  the 
Church  of  England.  At  the  same  time  the  Test  Act  (§  529), 
which  had  also  been  passed  in  Charles  II’s  reign  to  keep  both 
Catholics  and  Dissenters  out  of  government  offices,  whether  civil 
or  military,  was  repealed.  As  a  matter  of  fact  “  the  teeth  of  both 
acts  had  long  been  drawn  ”  by  an  annual  Indemnity  Act  (1727). 

The  next  year  (1829)  a  still  greater  reform  was  carried.  For  a 
long  period  the  Roman  Catholic  Emancipation  party  (§  609)  had 
been  laboring  to  obtain  the  abolition  of  the  laws  which  had  been 
on  the  statute  books  for  over  a  century  and  a  half,  by  which  Catho¬ 
lics  were  excluded  from  the  right  to  sit  in  Parliament.  These  laws, 
it  will  be  remembered,  were  enacted  at  the  time  of  the  alleged 
Popish  Plot,  and  in  consequence  of  the  perjured  evidence 
given  bv Titus  Oates  (§  530). 1  The  King,  and  the  Tory  party  mar¬ 
shalled  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  strenuously  resisted  the  repeal 
of  these  statutes  ;  but  finally  the  duke  became  convinced  that 
further  opposition  was  useless.  He  therefore  suddenly  changed 
about  and  took  the  lead  in  securing  the  success  of  a  measure  which 
he  heartily  hated,  solely,  as  he  declared,  to  avert  civil  war. 

But  at  the  same  time  that  Catholic  emancipation  was  granted, 
an  act  was  passed  raising  the  property  qualification  of  a  very 
1  See  Sydney  Smith’s  Peter  Plymley’s  Letters. 


358  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [i820-iS3< 


large  class  of  small  Irish  landholders  from  £2  to  ^10.  This 
measure  deprived  many  thousands  of  their  right  to  vote.  The 
law  was  enacted  on  the  pretext  that  the  small  Irish  landholders 
would  be  influenced  by  their  landlord  or  their  priest. 

Under  the  new  order  of  things,  Daniel  O’Connell,  an  Irish 
gentleman  of  an  old  and  honorable  family,  and  a  man  of  dis¬ 
tinguished  ability,  came  forward  as  leader  of  the  Catholics.  After 
much  difficulty  he  succeeded  in  taking  his  seat  in  the  House 
of  Commons  (1829).  He  henceforth  devoted  himself,  though 
without  avail,  to  the  repeal  of  the  act  uniting  Ireland  with 
England  (§  609),  and  to  the  restoration  of  an  independent  Irish 
Parliament. 

619.  The  New  Police  (1829). — Although  London  had  now  a 
population  of  a  million  and  a  half,  it  still  had  no  effective  police. 
The  guardians  of  the  peace  at  that  date  were  infirm  old  men,  who 
spent  their  time  dozing  in  sentry-boxes,  and  had  neither  the 
strength  nor  energy  to  be  of  sendee  in  any  emergency.  The 
young  fellow's  of  fashion  considered  these  venerable  constables  as 
legitimate  game,  and  often  amused  themselves  by  upsetting  the 
sentry-boxes  with  their  occupants,  leaving  the  latter  helpless  in 
the  street,  kicking  and  struggling  like  turtles  turned  on  their 
backs,  and  as  powerless  to  get  on  their  feet  again. 

During  the  last  year  of  the  reign  Sir  Robert  Peel  got  a  bill 
passed  (1829)  w’hich  organized  a  new  and  thoroughly  efficient 
police  force,  properly  equipped  and  uniformed.  Great  was  the 
outcry  against  this  innovation,  and  the  “  men  in  blue  ”  w'ere 
hooted  at,  not  only  by  London  “  roughs,”  but  by  respectable 
citizens,  as  “Bobbies”  or  “  Peelers,”  in  derisive  allusion  to  their 
founder.  But  the  “  Bobbies,”  who  carry  no  visible  club,  were 
not  to  be  jeered  out  of  existence.  They  did  their  duty  like  men, 
and  have  continued  to  do  it  in  a  wray  which  long  since  gained  for 
them  the  good  will  of  all  who  care  for  the  preservation  of  law 
and  order. 

620.  Death  of  the  King  (1830).  —  George  IV  died  soon  after 
the  passage  of  the  new  Police  Bill  (1830).  Of  him  it  may  w'ell 
be  said,  though  in  a  very  different  sense  from  that  in  which  the 


1820-1830]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


359 


expression  was  originally  used,  that  “  nothing  in  his  life  became 
him  like  the  leaving  it.”  During  his  ten  years’  reign  he  had 
squandered  enormous  sums  of  money  in  gambling  and  dissipation, 
and  had  done  his  utmost  to  block  the  wheels  of  political  progress. 

How  far  this  son  of  an  insane  father  was  responsible,  it  may 
not  be  for  us  to  judge.  Walter  Scott,  who  had  a  kind  word  for 
almost  every  one,  and  especially  for  any  one  of  the  Tory  party 
(§  531),  did  not  fail  to  say  something  in  praise  of  the  generous 
good  nature  of  his  friend  George  IV.  The  sad  thing  is  that  his 
voice  was  the  only  one.  In  a  whole  nation  the  rest  were  silent ; 
or,  if  they  spoke,  it  was  neither  to  commend  nor  to  defend, 
but  to  condemn. 

621.  Summary. — The  legislative  reforms  of  George  IV’s 
reign  are  its  chief  features.  The  repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corpo¬ 
ration  acts  and  the  granting  of  Catholic  emancipation  were  tardy 
measures  of  justice.  Neither  the  King  nor  his  ministers  deserve 
any  credit  for  them,  but,  none  the  less,  they  accomplished  great 
and  permanent  good.  * 


WILLIAM  IV— 1830-1837 


622.  Accession  and  Character  of  William  IV.  — As  George  IV 
left  no  heir,  his  brother  William,  a  man  of  sixty-five,  now  came 
to  the  throne.  He  had  passed  most  of  his  life  on  shipboard, 
having  been  placed  in  the  navy  when  a  mere  lad.  He  was  some¬ 
what  rough  in  his  manner,  and  cared  nothing  for  the  ceremony 
and  etiquette  that  were  so  dear  to  both  George  III  and  George  IV. 
His  faults,  however,  were  on  the  surface.  He  was  frank,  hearty, 
and  a  friend  to  the  people,  to  whom  he  was  familiarly  known  as 
the  “  Sailor  King.” 

623.  Need  of  Parliamentary  Reform ;  Rotten  Boroughs.  — 

From  the  beginning  of  this  reign  it  was  evident  that  the  great 
question  which  must  come 'up  for  settlement  was  that  of  parlia¬ 
mentary  representation.  Large  numbers  of  the  people  of  England 
had  now  no  voice  in  the  government.  This  unfortunate  state  of 
things  was  chiefly  the  result  of  the  great  changes  which  had  taken 


360  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1830-1837 


place  in  the  growth  of  the  population  of  the  midlands  and  the 
north  (§§610,  616). 

Since  the  introduction  of  steam  (§610)  the  rapid  increase  of 
manufactures  and  commerce  had  built  up  Birmingham,  Leeds, 
Sheffield,  Manchester,  and  other  large  towns  in  the  iron,  coal,  pot¬ 
tery,  and  manufacturing  districts.  These  important  towns  could 
not  send  a  member  to  Parliament ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  many 
places  in  the  south  of  England  which  did  send  had  long  since 
ceased  to  be  of  any  importance.  Furthermore,  the  representa¬ 
tion  was  of  the  most  haphazard  description.  In  one  section  no 
one  could  vote  except  substantial  property-holders ;  in  another, 
none  but  town  officers,  while  in  a  third  every  man  who  had 
a  tenement  big  enough  to  boil  a  pot  in,  and  hence  called  a 
“  Potwalloper,”  possessed  the  right. 

To  this  singular  state  of  things  the  nation  had  long  been  indif¬ 
ferent.  During  the  Middle  Ages  the  inhabitants  often  had  no 
desire  either  to  go  to  Parliament  themselves  or  to  send  others. 
The  expense  of  the  journey  was  great,  the  compensation  was 
small,  and  unless  some  important  matter  of  special  interest  to  the 
people  was  at  stake,  they  preferred  to  stay  at  home.  On  this 
account  it  was  often  almost  as  difficult  for  the  sheriff  to  get  a 
distant  county  member  up  to  the  House  of  Commons  in  London 
as  it  would  have  been  to  carry  him  there  a  prisoner  to  be  tried 
for  his  life. 

Now,  however,  everything  was  changed  ;  the  rise  of  political  par¬ 
ties  (§  531),  the  constant  and  heavy  taxation,  the  jealousy  of  the 
increase  of  royal  authority,  the  influence  and  honor  of  the  position 
of  a  parliamentary  representative,  all  conspired  to  make  men  eager 
to  obtain  their  full  share  in  the  management  of  the  government. 

This  new  interest  had  begun  as  far  back  as  the  civil  wars  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  when  Cromwell  came  to  power 
he  effected  many  much-needed  reforms.  But  after  the  restora¬ 
tion  of  the  Stuarts  (§  519),  the  Protector’s  wise  measures  were 
repealed  or  neglected.  Then  the  old  order,  or  rather  disorder, 
again  asserted  itself,  and  in  many  cases  matters  became  worse 
than  qver. 


830-1837]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


361 


Thus,  for  instance,  the  borough  or  city  of  Old  Sarum,  in  Wilt¬ 
shire,  which  had  once  been  an  important  place,  had,  at  an  early 
period,  gradually  declined  through  the  growth  of  New  Sarum,  or 
Salisbury,  near  by.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the  parent  city  had 
so  completely  decayed  that  not  a  single  habitation  was  left  on  the 
desolate  hill-top  where  the  castle  and  cathedral  once  stood.  At 
the  foot  of  the  hill  was  an  old  tree.  The  owner  of  that  tree  and 
of  the  field  where  it  grew  sent  (1830)  two  members  to  Parliament, 
—  that  action  represented  what  had  been  regularly  going  on  for 
something  like  three  hundred  years  ! 

In  Bath,  on  the  other  hand,  none  of  the  citizens,  out  of  a  large 
population,  might  vote  except  the  mayor,  alderman,  and  common 
council.  These  places  now  got  the  significant  name  of  “  rotten 
boroughs  ”  from  the  fact  that  whether  large  or  small  there  was  no 
longer  any  sound  political  life  existing  in  them.1 

624.  The  Reform  Bill,  1832.  —  For  fifty  years  after  the  coming 
in  of  the  Georges  the  country  had  been  ruled  by  a  powerful  Whig 
(§§  5 3 1 ,  581)  monopoly.  Under  George  III  that  monopoly  was 
broken  (§  597),  and  the  Tories  (§  531)  got  possession  of  the  gov¬ 
ernment  ;  but  whichever  party  ruled,  Parliament,  owing  to  the 
“rotten-borough”  system,  no  longer  represented  the  nation,  but 
simply  stood  for  the  will  of  certain  wealthy  landholders  and  town 
corporations. 

A  loud  and  determined  demand  was  now  made  for  reform. 
In  this  movement  no  one  was  more  active  or  influential  among  the 
common  people  than  William  Cobbett.  He  was  a  vigorous  and 
fearless  writer,  who  for  years  published  a  small  newspaper,  called 
the  Political  Register ,  which  was  especially  devoted  to  securing  a 
just  and  uniform  system  of  representation. 

On  the  accession  of  William  IV  the  pressure  for  reform  became 
so  great  that  Parliament  was  forced  to  act.  Lord  John  Russell 
brought  in  a  bill  (1831)  providing  for  the  abolition  of  the  “  rotten 

1  Many  towns  were  so  completely  in  the  hands  of  the  squire  or  some  other  local 
“  political  boss  ”  that,  when  a  successful  candidate  for  Parliament  thanked  the  voters 
for  what  they  had  done,  one  man  replied  that  he  need  not  take  the  trouble  to  thank 
them;  for,  said  he,  “if  the  squire  had  zent  his  great  dog  we  should  have  chosen  him 
all  one  as  if  it  were  you,  zur.’’ —  Murray,  Wiltshire  (Hindon). 


362  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1830-1837 


boroughs  ”  and  for  a  fair  system  of  elections.  But  those  who 
owned  or  controlled  those  boroughs  had  no  intention  of  giving 
them  up.  Their  opponents,  however,  were  equally  determined, 
and  they  knew  that  they  had  the  support  of  the  nation. 

In  a  speech  which  the  Reverend  Sydney  Smith  made  at  Taun¬ 
ton,  he  compared  the  futile  resistance  of  the  House  of  Lords  to 
the  proposed  reform  to  Mrs.  Partington’s  attempt  to  drive  back 
the  rising  tide  of  the  Atlantic  with  her  mop.  The  ocean  rose, 
and  Mrs.  Partington,  seizing  her  mop,  rose  against  it ;  yet,  not¬ 
withstanding  the  good  lady’s  efforts,  the  Atlantic  got  the  best  of 
it ;  so  the  speaker  prophesied  that  in  this  case  the  people,  like 
the  Atlantic,  would  in  the  end  carry  the  day.1 

When  the  bill  came  up,  the  greater  part  of  the  Lords  and  the 
bishops,  who,  so  far  as  they  were  concerned  personally,  had  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  they  wanted,  opposed  it ;  so  too  did  the 
Tories  (§  531),  in  the  House  of  Commons.  They  thought  that 
the  proposed  law  threatened  the  stability  of  the  government. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  (§  618)  was  particularly  hostile  to  it,  and 
wrote,  “  I  don’t  generally  take  a  gloomy  view  of  things,  but  I  con¬ 
fess  that,  knowing  all  that  I  do,  I  cannot  see  what  is  to  save  the 
Church,  or  property,  or  colonies,  or  union  with  Ireland,  or, 
eventually,  monarchy,  if  the  Reform  Bill  passes.”  2 

The  King  dissolved  Parliament  (§  583,  note  2)  ;  a  new  one 
was  elected,  and  the  Reform  Bill  was  passed  by  the  Commons ; 
but  the  Upper  House  rejected  it.  Then  a  period  of  wild  excite¬ 
ment  ensued.  The  people  in  many  of  the  towns  collected 
in  the  public  squares,  tolled  the  church  bells,  built  bonfires  in 
which  they  burned  the  bishops  in  effigy,  with  other  leading  oppo¬ 
nents  of  the  bill,  and  cried  out  for  the  abolition  of  the  House 
of  Lords. 

In  London  the  rabble  smashed  the  windows  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington.  In  Bristol  and  Derby  terrible  riots  broke  out.  At 
Nottingham  the  mob  fired  and  destroyed  the  castle  of  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle  because  he  was  opposed  to  reform.  All  over  the 

1  Sydney  Smith's  Essays  and  Speeches. 

2  Wellington's  Despatches  and  Letters,  II,  451. 


1830-1837]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE  363 

country  shouts  were  heard,  “  The  Bill,  the  whole  Bill,  and  nothing 
but  the  Bill !  ” 

625.  Passage  of  the  Bill,  1832;  Results.  —  In  the  spring  of 
1832  the  battle  began  again  with  greater  fierceness  than  ever. 
Again  the  House  of  Commons  voted  the  bill,  and  once  again 
the  Lords  defeated  it. 

It  was  evident  that  matters  could  not  go  on  in  this  manner  much 
longer.  The  ministry,  as  a  final  measure,  appealed  to  the  King  for 
help.  If  the  Tory  Lords  would  not  pass  the  bill,  the  King  had 
the  power  to  create  a  sufficient  number  of  new  Whig  Lords  who 
would.  William  now  yielded  to  the  pressure,  and,  much  against 
his  will,  gave  the  following  document  to  his  Prime  Minister  :  — 

“  The  King  grants  permission  to  Earl  Grey ,  and  to  his 
Chancellor,  Lord  Brougham,  to  create  such  a  number  of  Peers 
as  will  be  sufficient  to  insure  the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill  — first 
calling  up  Peers'  eldest  sons. 

“William  R.,  Windsor,  May  17,  1832.”1 

But  there  was  no  occasion  to  make  use  of  this  permission.  As 
soon  as  the  peers  found  that  the  King  had  granted  it,  they  yielded. 
Those  who  had  opposed  the  bill  now  stayed  away  ;  the  measure 
was  carried,  received  the  royal  signature,  and  became  law. 

Its  passage  brought  about  a  beneficent  change  : 2  1.  It  abol¬ 

ished  nearly  sixty  “rotten  boroughs.”  2.  It  gave  every  house¬ 
holder  who  paid  a  rent  of  ten  pounds  in  any  town  a  vote,  and 
largely  extended  the  list  of  county  voters  as  well.  3.  It  granted 
two  representatives  to  Birmingham,  Leeds,  Manchester,  and  nine¬ 
teen  other  large  towns,  and  one  representative  each  to  twenty-one 
other  places,  all  of  which  had  hitherto  been  unrepresented,  besides 
granting  fifteen  additional  members  to  the  counties.  4.  It  added 
in  all  half  a  million  of  voters  to  the  list,  and  it  helped  to  purify 
the  elections  from  the  violence  which  had  disgraced  them. 

Before  the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill  and  the  legislation  which 

1  “  First  calling  up  peers’  eldest  sons  ”  :  that  is,  in  creating  new  Lords,  the  eldest 
sons  of  peers  were  to  have  the  preference.  William  R.  (Rex ,  King)  :  this  is  the 
customary  royal  signature. 

2  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxvi,  §31. 


364  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1830-1837 


supplemented  it,  the  election  of  a  member  of  Parliament  was  a 
kind  of  local  reign  of  terror.  The  smaller  towns  were  sometimes 
under  the  control  of  drunken  ruffians  for  several  weeks.  During 
that  time  they  paraded  the  streets  in  bands,  assaulting  voters  of 
the  opposite  party  with  clubs,  kidnapping  prominent  men  and 
confining  them  until  after  the  election,  and  perpetrating  other 
outrages,  which  so  frightened  peaceable  citizens  that  often  they 
did  not  dare  attempt  to  vote  at  all. 

626.  Abolition  of  Slavery  (1833);  Factory  Reform  (1833). — 
With  the  new  Parliament  that  came  into  power  the  names  of 
Liberal  and  Conservative  began  to  supplant  those  of  Whig  and 
Tory  (§  531).  The  House  of  Commons  now  reflected  the  will 
of  the  people  better  than  ever  before,  and  further  reforms  were 
accordingly  carried. 

Buxton,  Wilberforce,  Brougham,  and  other  philanthropists, 
against  the  strenuous  opposition  of  the  King,  secured  the  pas¬ 
sage  through  Parliament  of  a  bill  (1833),  for  which  they,  with 
the  younger  Pitt,  Clarkson,  and  Zachary  Macaulay,  had  labored 
in  vain  for  half  a  century.  By  this  act  all  negro  slaves  in  the 
British  West  India  colonies,  numbering  eight  hundred  thousand, 
were  set  free,  and  the  sum  of  jQ 20,000,000  was  appropriated  to 
compensate  the  owners. 

It  was  a  grand  deed  grandly  done.  Could  America  have  fol¬ 
lowed  that  noble  example,  she  might  thereby  have  saved  a  million 
of  human  lives  and  many  thousand  millions  of  dollars  which  were 
cast  into  the  gulf  of  civil  war,  while  the  corrupting  influence  of 
five  years  of  waste  and  discord  would  have  been  avoided. 

But  negro  slaves  were  not  the  only  slaves  in  those  days.  There 
were  white  slaves  as  well,  —  women  and  children  born  in  England, 
but  condemned  by  their  necessities  to  work  underground  in  the 
coal  mines,  or  to  exhaust  their  strength  in  the  cotton  mills.1  They 

1  Children  of  six  and  seven  years  old  were  kept  at  work  for  twelve  and  thirteen 
hours  continuously  in  the  factories,  and  were  often  inhumanly  treated.  They  were 
also  employed  in  the  coal  mines  at  this  tender  age.  All  day  long  they  sat  in  abso¬ 
lute  darkness,  opening  and  shutting  doors  for  the  passage  of  coal  cars.  If,  overcome 
with  fatigue,  they  fell  asleep,  they  were  cruelly  beaten  with  a  strap.  See  Gibbin’s 
Industrial  History  of  England. 


1830-1837]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


365 


were  driven  by  brutal  masters  who  cared  as  little  for  the  welfare 
of  those  under  them  as  the  overseer  of  a  West  India  plantation 
did  for  his  gangs  of  toilers  in  the  sugar-cane  fields. 

Parliament  at  length  turned  its  attention  to  these  abuses,  and 
greatly  alleviated  them  by  the  passage  of  acts  (1833)  forbidding 
the  employment  of  women  and  young  children  in  the  collieries  and 
factories,  while  a  later  act  put  an  end  to  the  barbarous  practice 
of  forcing  children  to  sweep  chimneys. 

In  an  overcrowded  country  like  England,  the  lot  of  the  poor 
must  continue  to  be  exceptionally  hard,  but  there  is  no  longer 
the  indifference  toward  it  that  once  prevailed.  Poverty  there 
may  still  be  looked  upon  as  a  crime,  or  something  very  like  it ; 
but  it  is  regarded  now  as  a  crime  which  may  possibly  have  some 
extenuating  circumstances. 

627.  Inventions  ;  the  First  Steam  Railway,  1830  ;  the  Railway 
Craze  ;  the  Friction  Match.  —  Ever  since  the  application  of  steam 
to  machinery,  inventors  had  been  discussing  plans  for  placing 
the  steam  engine  on  wheels  and  using  it  as  a  propelling  power 
in  place  of  horses.  Macadam,  a  Scotch  surveyor,  had  con¬ 
structed  a  number  of  very  superior  roads  made  of  gravel  and 
broken  stone  in  the  south  of  England,  which  soon  made  the 
name  of  macadamized  turnpike  celebrated. 

The  question  now  was,  Might  not  a  still  further  advance  be 
made  by  employing  steam  to  draw  cars  on  these  roads,  or  better 
still,  on  iron  rails?  George  Stephenson  had  long  been  experi¬ 
menting  in  that  direction,  and  at  length  certain  capitalists  whom 
he  had  converted  to  his  views  succeeded  in  getting  an  act  of 
Parliament  for  constructing  a  railway  between  Liverpool  and 
Manchester,  a  distance  of  about  thirty  miles. 

When  the  road  was  completed  by  Stephenson,  he  had  great 
difficulty  in  getting  permission  to  use  an  engine  instead  of  horse 
power  on  it.  Finally  his  new  locomotive,  “  The  Rocket,”  — 
which  first  introduced  the  tubular  boiler,  and  employed  the 
exhaust  or  escaping  steam  to  increase  the  draught  of  the  fire,  — 
was  tried  with  entire  success. 

The  road  was  formally  opened  in  the  autumn  of  1830,  and  the 


366  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1830-1837 


Duke  of  Wellington,  then  Prime  Minister,  was  one  of  the  few 
passengers  who  ventured  on  the  trial  trip.1  The  growth  of  this 
new  mode  of  transportation  was  so  rapid  that  in  five  years  from 
that  time  London  and  the  principal  seaports  were  connected  with 
the  great  manufacturing  towns,  while  steam  navigation  had  also 
nearly  doubled  its  vessels  and  its  tonnage. 

Ten  years  later  still  the  whole  country  became  involved  in  a 
speculative  craze  for  building  railroads.  Hundreds  of  millions  of 
pounds  were  invested  ;  for  a  time  Hudson,  the  “  Railway  King,” 
as  he  was  called,  ruled  supreme,  and  members  of  Parliament  did 
homage  to  the  man  whose  schemes  promised  to  cover  the  whole 
island  with  a  network  of  iron  roads,  every  one  of  which  was 
expected  to  make  its  stockholders  rich.  Eventually  these  proj¬ 
ects  ended  in  a  panic,  second  only  to  that  of  the  South  Sea 
Bubble  (§  585),  and  thousands  found  that  steam  could  destroy 
fortunes  even  faster  than  it  made  them. 

Toward  the  close  of  William’s  reign  (1834-1835)  a  humble 
invention  was  perfected  of  which  little  was  said  at  the  time,  but 
which  contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  the  comfort  and  con¬ 
venience  of  every  one.  Up  to  this  date  the  two  most  important 
of  all  civilizing  agents  —  fire  and  light  —  could  be  produced  only 
with  much  difficulty  and  at  considerable  expense. 

Various  devices  had  been  contrived  to  obtain  them,  but  the 
common  method  continued  to  be  the  primitive  one  of  striking  a 
bit  of  flint  and  steel  sharply  together  until  a  falling  spark  ignited 
a  piece  of  tinder  or  half-burnt  rag,  which,  when  it  caught,  had, 
with  no  little  expense  of  breath,  to  be  blown  into  a  flame.  The 
progress  of  chemistry  suggested  the  use  of  phosphorus,  and  after 
years  of  experiments  the  friction  match  was  invented  by  an 

1  “  The  Rocket  ”  and  Watt’s  first  steam-pumping  engine  are  both  preserved 
in  the  Patent  Office  Museum,  South  Kensington,  London.  The  tubular  boiler  is, 
as  its  name  implies,  a  boiler  traversed  by  a  number  of  tubes  communicating  with 
the  smoke-pipe ;  as  the  heat  passes  through  these,  steam  is  thereby  generated  much 
more  rapidly  than  it  could  otherwise  be.  The  steam,  after  it  has  done  its  work 
in  the  cylinders,  escapes  into  the  smoke-pipe  with  great  force,  and  of  course  increases 
the  draught.  Without  these  two  improvements  of  Stephenson’s  the  locomotive  would 
never  have  attained  a  greater  speed  than  five  or  six  miles  an  hour. 


1830-1837]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


367 


English  apothecary,  who  thus  gave  to  the  world  what  is  now  the 
commonest,  and  perhaps  at  the  same  time  the  most  useful, 
domestic  article  in  existence. 

628.  Summary.  —  William  IV’s  short  reign  of  seven  years  is 
marked  (1)  by  the  great  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  which  took  Par¬ 
liament  out  of  the  hands  of  a  moneyed  clique  and  put  it  under 
the  control  of  the  people  ;  (2)  by  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
British  colonies,  and  factory  reform  ;  (3)  by  the  introduction  of 
the  friction  match,  and  by  the  building  of  the  first  successful  line 
of  railway. 

VICTORIA — 1837-1901 

629.  The  Queen’s  Descent ;  Stability  of  the  Government.  — 

As  William  IV  left  no  child  to  inherit  the  crown,  he  was  suc¬ 
ceeded  by  his  niece  (see  table,  §  581),  the  Princess  Victoria, 
daughter  of  his  brother  Edward,  Duke  of  Kent.  In  her  lineage 
the  Queen  represented  nearly  the  whole  past  sovereignty  of  the 
land  over  which  she  governed.1  The  blood  of  both  Cerdic, 
the  first  Saxon  king,  and  of  William  the  Conqueror,2  flowed  in 
her  veins,  —  a  fact  which  strikingly  illustrates  the  vitality  of 
the  hereditary  and  conservative  principles  in  the  history  of  the 
English  crown. 

This  fact  is  made  more  conspicuous  by  the  recent  close  of  the 
Queen’s  long  reign  (1901).  Here  then  let  us  pause  and  take  a 
rapid  survey  of  the  ground  we  have  passed  over. 

In  1066  the  Normans  crossed  the  Channel,  invaded  the  island, 
conquered  its  inhabitants,  and  seized  the  throne.  Five  centuries 
later  the  religion  of  Rome  was  supplanted  by  the  Protestant  faith 
of  Luther. 

Somewhat  less  than  a  hundred  years  after  that  event,  civil  war 
burst  forth,  1642,  the  King  was  deposed  and  beheaded,  and 
a  republic  established.  A  few  years  subsequently  the  mon¬ 
archy  was  restored,  1660,  only  to  be  followed  by  the  revolution, 
1688,  which  changed  the  order  of  succession,  drove  one  line  of 

1  The  only  exceptions  are  the  four  Danish  sovereigns  and  Harold  II. 

2  See  table  of  the  Descent  of  English  Sovereigns  in  the  Appendix. 


368  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


sovereigns  from  the  land,  and  called  in  another  from  Germany 
to  take  their  place.  Meanwhile  new  political  parties  rose  to 
power,  the  Reform  Bill  passed,  1832,  and  Parliament  came  to 
represent  more  perfectly  the  will  of  the  whole  people ;  yet  after 
all  these  events,  at  the  end  of  more  than  ten  centuries  from 
the  date  when  Egbert  first  assumed  the  crown  (828),  we  find 
England  governed  by  a  descendant  of  her  earliest  rulers  ! 

630.  A  New  Order  of  Things  ;  the  House  of  Commons  now 
Supreme.  —  Queen  Victoria  was  but  little  over  eighteen  when 
called  to  the  throne.  At  her  accession  a  new  order  of  things 
began.  The  Georges,  with  William  IV,  had  insisted  on  dismiss¬ 
ing  their  ministers,  or  chief  political  advisers,  when  they  pleased, 
without  condescending  to  give  Parliament  any  reason  for  the 
change.  That  system,  which  may  be  considered  as  the  last  vestige 
of  “  personal  government,”  1  that  is,  of  the  power  of  the  Crown  to 
act  without  the  advice  of  the  nation,  died  with  the  late  king. 

With  the  coronation  of  Victoria  the  principle  was  established 
that  henceforth  the  sovereign  of  the  British  Empire  cannot 
remove  the  Prime  Minister  or  his  Cabinet  (§583)  without  the 
consent  of  the  House  of  Commons  elected  by  and  directly  rep¬ 
resenting  the  great  body  of  the  people  ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
would  the  sovereign  now  venture  to  retain  a  ministry  which  the 
Commons  refused  to  support.2  This  fact  shows  that  the  House 

1  See  McCarthy’s  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 

2  Attention  has  already  been  called  (see  §  5S3,  note  2)  to  the  fact  that  the  Prime 
Minister,  with  his  cabinet  officers,  must  retain  the  support  of  the  majority  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  Failing  to  do  so,  custom  forces  him  to  promptly  resign,  or  in 
case  the  sovereign  dissolves  Parliament  and  a  new  election  takes  place,  the  Prime 
Minister  with  his  Cabinet  stands  or  falls  according  to  the  political  result. 

In  order  to  guard  herself  against  any  political  influence  adverse  to  that  of  the 
ministry  (and  hence  of  the  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons),  the  Queen  was  com¬ 
pelled  to  consent  (1841)  that  the  Mistress  of  the  Robes,  or  head  of  her  majesty’s 
household,  should  change  at  the  demand  of  the  incoming  Prime  Minister,  and  it  was 
furthermore  agreed  that  any  ladies  under  her  whose  presence  might  be  politically 
inconvenient  to  the  Prime  Minister  should  retire  “of  their  own  accord.”  In  other 
words,  the  incoming  ministry  have  the  right  to  remodel  the  sovereign’s  household  —  or 
any  other  body  of  offices  —  in  whatever  degree  they  think  requisite,  and  the  late 
Prince  Albert  could  not  even  appoint  his  own  private  secretary,  but  much  to  his 
chagrin  had  to  accept  one  appointed  for  him  by  the  Prime  Minister.  See  May’s 
Constitutional  History  of  England  and  Martin’s  Life  of  the  Prince  Consort. 


“YOUR  MAJESTY”  —  Announcement  to  the  Princess  Victoria  of  her  Accession 
to  the  Crown,  June  20,  1837 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


369 


of  Commons  is  now  the  ruling  power  in  England,  and  as  that 
House  is  expressly  chosen  to  declare  the  will  of  the  nation,  it 
follows  that  the  government  of  the  realm  is  essentially  democratic. 
In  fact,  so  far  as  reflecting  public  opinion  is  concerned,  no  republic 
in  the  world  is  more  democratic. 

Custom,  too,  has  decided  that  the  sovereign  must  sanction  any 
bill  which  Parliament  approves  and  desires  to  make  law ; 1  so  that, 
as  a  recent  writer  forcibly  said,  if  the  two  Houses  had  agreed  to 
send  the  late  Queen  her  own  death  warrant,  she  would  have  been 
obliged  to  sign  it,  or  abdicate.2 

An  English  sovereign’s  real  position  to-day  is  that  of  a  person 
who  has  much  indirect  influence  and  but  little  direct  power, — 
far  less  in  fact  than  that  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
He  can  exercise  the  right  of  vetoing  a  bill,  and  thus  prevent  a 
majority  of  Congress  from  enacting  a  law ; 3  and  he  can  remove 
the  higher  executive  or  cabinet  officers  at  pleasure. 

631.  Sketch  of  the  Peerage.  —  A  change  equally  great  has 
taken  place  with  respect  to  the  peers.4  As  that  body  has  played 
a  most  important  part  in  the  government  of  England  and  still 
retains  considerable  influence,  it  may  be  well  to  consider  their 
history  and  present  condition. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  peerage  originated  with  the 
Norman  Conquest.  William  rewarded  the  barons,  or  chief  men, 
who  fought  under  him  at  blastings 5  with  grants  of  immense 
estates,  which  were  given  on  two  conditions,  one  of  military 
service  at  the  call  of  the  sovereign  (§  200),  the  other  their 


1  Queen  Anne  was  the  last  sovereign  who  vetoed  a  bill.  That  was  the  Scotch 
Military  Bill  in  1707.  During  the  period  of  nearly  two  hundred  years  which  has 
followed  no  English  sovereign  has  ventured  to  repeat  the  experiment. 

2  See  Bagehot,  The  English  Constitution. 

3  Congress  may,  however,  pass  a  law  over  the  President’s  veto,  providing  they 
can  get  a  two-thirds  vote  in  its  favor. 

4  Peers  (from  the  Latin  pares ,  equals):  the  word  first  occurs  in  an  act  of  Par¬ 
liament,  1321,  —  “  Pares  et  proceres  regni  Angli®  spirituales  et  temporales.” 

5  The  names  of  the  great  barons  have  been  preserved  in  Domesday  Book  (see 
§  169),  in  the  roll  of  Battle  Abbey  (though  that  was  tampered  with  by  the  monks), 
and  on  the  wall  of  the  twelfth-century  church  at  Dives,  Normandy,  where  the 
Conqueror  built  his  ships. 


37©  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


attendance  at  the  royal  council  (§  200),  an  advisory  and  legis¬ 
lative  body  which  contained  the  germ  of  the  present  parlia¬ 
mentary  system. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  Conqueror  made  the  possession  of 
landed  property  directly  dependent  on  the  discharge  of  public 
duties.  So  that  if,  on  the  one  hand,  the  Conquest  carried  out  the 
principle 

“  That  they  should  take  who  have  the  power, 

And  they  should  keep  who  can,”1 

on  the  other,  it  insisted  on  the  higher  principle  that  in  return  for 
such  taking  and  keeping  the  victors  should  bind  themselves  by 
oath  to  defend  and  to  govern  the  state. 

In  later  reigns  the  king  summoned  other  influential  men  to 
attend  Parliament.  To  distinguish  them  from  the  original  barons 
by  land-tenure,  they  were  called  “barons  by  writ”  (§  315). 
Subsequently  it  became  customary  for  the  sovereign  to  create 
barons  by  letters  patent,  as  is  the  method  at  present  (§  315). 

The  original  baronage  continued  predominant  until  the  Wars  of 
the  Roses  (§  368)  so  nearly  destroyed  the  ancient  nobility  that, 
as  Lord  Beaconsfield  says,  “A  Norman  baron  was  almost  as  rare 
a  being  in  England  then  as  a  wolf  is  now.”  2  With  the  coming  in 
of  the  Tudors  a  new  nobility  was  created  (§  404).  Even  this  has 
become  in  great  measure  extinct.  Perhaps  not  more  than  a  fourth 
of  those  who  now  sit  in  the  House  of  Lords  can  trace  their  titles 
further  back  than  the  Georges,  who  created  great  numbers  of  peers 
in  return  for  political  sendees  either  rendered  or  expected. 

Politically  speaking,  the  nobility  of  England,  unlike  the  old 
nobility  of  France,  is  as  a  rule  strictly  confined  to  the  male  head 
of  the  family.  None  of  the  children  of  the  most  powerful  duke 
or  lord  has  during  his  life  any  civil  or  legal  rights  or  privileges 
above  that  of  the  poorest  and  obscurest  peasant  in  Great  Britain.3 
They  are  simply  commoners. 

1  Wordsworth,  Rob  Roy’s  Grave.  2  Beaconsfield’s  Coningsby. 

3  Even  the  younger  children  of  the  sovereign  are  no  exception  to  this  rule.  The 
only  one  born  with  a  title  is  the  eldest,  who  is  Duke  of  Cornwall  by  birth,  and  is 
created  Prince  of  Wales.  The  others  are  simply  commoners.  See  Freeman’s 
Growth  of  the  English  Constitution. 


837— 1901  ]  government  by  the  people 


371 


But  by  courtesy  the  eldest  son  of  any  of  the  three  highest  ranks 
of  the  nobility  (§315,  note)  receives  a  part  of  his  father’s  title. 
At  his  death  he  enters  into  possession  of  his  estate  1  and  rank,  and 
takes  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Lords,  having  in  many  cases  been 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  by  election  for  a  number  of 
years  before.  The  younger  sons  of  a  duke  or  marquis  have  the 
courtesy  title  of  “  Lord  ”  prefixed  to  their  Christian  names,  but 
they  inherit  neither  political  power  nor  landed  property.  They 
generally  obtain  offices  in  the  civil  service,  or  positions  in  the 
army  or  the  Church. 

The  whole  number  of  peers  is  about  six  hundred.2  They 
may  be  said  to  own  most  of  the  land  of  England.  Their  average 
incomes  are  estimated  at  ,£22,000  ($110,000),  or  an  aggregate 
of  ,£11,000,000  ($55,000,000),  an  amount  which  probably  falls 
short  of  the  combined  incomes  of  half  a  dozen  leading  American 
capitalists. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  things  about  the  peerage  in  modern 
times  is  the  fact  that  its  ranks  have  been  constantly  recruited  from 
the  people.  Just  as  any  boy  in  America  feels  himself  a  possible 
senator  or  president,  so  any  one  born  or  naturalized  in  England 
may,  like  Pitt,  Disraeli,  Churchill,  Nelson,  Wellesley,  Brougham, 
Tennyson,  Macaulay,  or  the  American  Lord  Lyndhurst,3  hope  to 
win  and  wear  a  coronet ;  for  brains  and  character  go  to  the  front 
in  England  just  as  surely  as  they  do  elsewhere. 

In  their  legislative  action  the  peers  are,  with  very  rare  excep¬ 
tions,  extremely  conservative.  They  have  seldom  granted  their 
assent  to  any  liberal  measure  except  from  pressure  of  the  most 
unmistakable  kind.  It  is  for  their  interest  to  keep  things  as  they 
are,  and  hence  they  naturally  fight  against  every  tendency  to  give 
the  people  a  larger  measure  of  power.  They  opposed  the  Habeas 

1  So  strictly  is  property  entailed  that  there  are  proprietors  of  large  estates  who 
cannot  so  much  as  cut  down  a  tree  without  permission  of  the  heir.  Badeau’s 
English  Aristocracy. 

2  The  full  assembly  of  the  House  of  Lords  would  consist  of  five  hundred 
and  sixty-two  temporal  peers  and  twenty-six  spiritual  peers  (archbishops  and 
bishops) . 

3  J.  S.  Copley  (Lord  Lyndhurst),  son  of  the  famous  artist,  born  in  Boston,  1772. 


372  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


Corpus  Act  under  Charles  II,  the  Great  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  the 
Education  Bill  of  1834,  the  repeal  of  the  Com  Laws  in  1846, 
the  admission  of  the  Jews  to  Parliament  in  1858,  and  reluctantly 
consented  to  the  later  extensions  of  the  elective  franchise. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  their  influence  which  compelled 
John  to  sign  Magna  Carta  in  1 2 1 5  ;  it  was  one  of  their  number  — 
Simon  de  Montfort,  Earl  of  Leicester  —  who  called  the  House  of 
Commons  into  being  in  1265  ;  and  it  was  the  Lords  as  leaders 
who  inaugurated  the  Revolution  of  1688,  and  established  consti¬ 
tutional  sovereignty  under  William  and  Mary  in  the  place  of  the 
despotic  self-will  of  James  II.  Again,  it  was  Disraeli,  the  leader 
of  the  Tory  or  Conservative  party,  who  carried  the  Reform  Bill  of 
1867,  by  which  suffrage  was  largely  extended. 

It  is  the  fashion  with  impatient  radicals  to  style  the  Lords 
“  titled  obstructionists,”  privileged  to  block  the  way  to  all 
improvements ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  they  have  often  done 
the  country  good  sendee  by  checking  hurried  and  ill-considered 
legislation.  There  are  indications  that  the  time  may  not  be 
very  far  distant  when  a  hereditary  House  of  Lords  will  cease  to 
exist,  yet  there  will  always  be  need  in  England,  as  in  every  other 
civilized  country,  of  an  upper  legislative  house,  composed  of  men 
whose  motto  is  to  “  make  haste  slowly.” 

Meanwhile,  though  England  continues  to  lay  strong  emphasis 
on  nobility  of  rank  and  blood,  yet  she  is  never  forgetful  of 
the  honor  due  to  nobility  of  character.  Perhaps  it  is  the 
consciousness  of  this  fact  which  in  recent  times  has  led  men 
like  the  late  Mr.  Gladstone  to  decline  a  title,  content,  as  not 
a  few  of  the  descendants  of  the  old  Saxon  families  are,  with  the 
influence  won  by  an  unsullied  name  and  a  long  and  illustrious 
career. 

Eight  hundred  years  ago  the  House  of  Lords  was  the  only 
legislative  and  executive  body  in  the  country ;  now,  nearly  all 
the  business  is  done  in  the  House  of  Commons  (consisting  of 
some  six  hundred  and  seventy  members),  and  not  a  penny  of 
money  can  be  voted  for  any  purpose  whatever  except  the  Com¬ 
mons  first  propose  it.  Thus  taxation,  the  most  important  of  all 


THE  HOUSES  OF  PARLIAMENT,  WITH  WESTMINSTER  ABBEY  (from  the  Thames) 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


373 


measures,  has  passed  from  the  Lords  to  the  direct  representatives 
of  the  people.1  .. 

632.  The  Queen’s  Marriage  (1840).  —  In  her  twenty-first  yearj" 
Queen  Victoria  married  her  cousin,  Prince  Albert  of  Saxe  Coburg 
Gotha,  a  duchy  of  Central  Germany.2  The  Prince  was  about  her 
own  age,  of  fine  personal  appearance,  and  had  just  graduated 
from  one  of  the  German  universities.  He  was  particularly 

1  Other  measures  may  originate  in  either  House,  but  practically  nearly  all  begin 
with  the  Commons,  though  they  require  the  assent  of  the  Lords  to  become  law. 
This,  however,  is  now  never  refused  for  any  great  length  of  time  in  any  important 
legislation  which  the  people  demand.  The  following  points  are  also  of  interest :  — 

i.  All  laws  relating  to  the  rights  of  peers  must  originate  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
Estate  and  naturalization  laws  also  begin  in  the  Lords. 

z.  A  law  directly  affecting  the  House  of  Commons  originates  in  that  House. 

3.  There  is  only  one  bill  which  the  Crown  has  the  right  of  initiating,  —  an  Act  of 
General  Pardon. 

When  a  bill  has  passed  both  Houses,  it  receives  the  royal  assent  in  the  following 
words  (a  form  which  probably  originated  with  the  Norman  kings) :  “  Le  roi  (or  la 
reine)  le  veult  ”  (The  King  or  the  Queen  so  wills  it) ;  when,  in  the  past,  the  royal 
assent  was  refused,  the  denial  was  expressed  thus :  “  Le  roi  (or  la  reine)  s’avisera  ” 
(The  King  or  the  Queen  will  consider  it).  This  form  was  used  for  the  last  time  in 
1707,  when  Queen  Anne  refused  to  sign  a  military  bill.  Since  then  no  English 
sovereign  has  vetoed  a  parliamentary  bill. 

The  House  of  Lords  is  the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeal  in  the  kingdom,  and  it  is 
the  tribunal  by  which  persons  impeached  by  the  House  of  Common's  are  tried. 

2  Income  of  the  Sovereign  and  Royal  Family. — Tip  to  the  accession  of  George  III 
the  royal  income  was  derived  from  two  sources:  i.  Taxation.  2  The  rents  and 
profits  of  the  Crown  lands.  George  III  surrendered  his  right  to  these  lands  in  return 
for  a  fixed  income  granted  by  Parliament.  Since  then,  every  sovereign  has  done  the 
same.  The  late  Queen’s  income  was  £385,000  (#1,863,400,  calling  the  pound  #4.84). 
The  royal  family  received  in  addition  £156,000  (#755,040),  or  a  total  of  £541,000 
(#2,618,440). 

The  English  sovereign  has  at  present  the  following  powers,  all  of  which  are 
practically  vested  in  the  ministry  :  — 

1.  The  .power  of  summoning,  proroguing  (suspending  the  action  of),  and 
dissolving  Parliament  at  pleasure. 

2.  Of  refusing  assent  to  any  bill  (obsolete). 

3.  Of  making  peace,  declaring  war,  and  making  treaties. 

4.  Of  pardoning  convicted  offenders ;  of  coining  money. 

5.  Of  creating  peers,  appointing  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  in  general  granting 
all  titles  of  rank  and  honor. 

6.  Of  the  supreme  command  of  the  army  and  navy.  The  appointment  to  all 
offices  in  the  gift  of  the  Government,  which  was  formerly  in  the  hands  of  the  sover¬ 
eign,  is  now  under  the  control  of  the  Prime  Minister,  acting  in  connection  with  the 
civil-service  and  other  commissions. 


374  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


interested  in  art  and  education,  and  throughout  his  life  used 
his  influence  to  raise  the  standard  of  both. 

633.  Sir  Rowland  Hill’s  Postal  Reforms  (1839). — The  pre¬ 
ceding  year  Sir  Rowland  Hill  introduced  a  uniform  system  of 
cheap  postage.  The  rate  had  been  as  high  as  a  shilling  for  a 
single  letter.1  Such  a  charge  was  practically  prohibitive,  and,  as  a 
rule,  no  one  wrote  in  those  days  if  he  could  possibly  avoid  it. 
Sir  Rowland  reduced  it  to  a  penny  (paid  by  stamp)  to  any  part  of 
the  United  Kingdom.2  Since  then  the  Government  has  taken 
over  all  the  telegraph  lines,  and  cheap  telegrams  and  the  trans¬ 
portation  of  parcels  by  mail  (a  kind  of  government  express  known 
as  parcels-post)  have  followed.  They  are  all  improvements  of 
immense  practical  benefit. 

634.  Rise  of  the  Chartists  (1838-1848).  — The  feeling  attend¬ 
ing  the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832  (§625)  had  passed 
away ;  but  now  a  popular  agitation  began  which  produced  even 
greater  excitement.  Although  the  act  of  r832  had  equalized 
parliamentary  representation  and  had  enlarged  the  elective 
franchise  to  a  very  considerable  degree,  yet  the  great  body  of 
workingmen  were  still  shut  out  from  the  right  to  vote.  A  radical 
party  called  the  “  Chartists  ”  now  arose,  which  undertook  to  secure 
further  measures  of  reform. 

They  embodied  their  measures  in  a  document  called  the 
“People’s  Charter,”  which  demanded:  r.  Universal  male  suf¬ 
frage.  2.  That  the  voting  at  elections  should  be  by  ballot. 
3.  Annual  Parliaments.  4.  The  payment  of  members  of  Par¬ 
liament.  5.  The  abolition  of  the  property  qualification  for 

1  An  illustration  of  the  effects  of  such  high  charges  for  postage  is  related  by 
Coleridge.  He  says  that  he  met  a  poor  woman  at  Keswick  just  as  she  was  return¬ 
ing  a  letter  from  her  son  to  the  postman,  saying  she  could  not  afford  to  pay  for  it. 
Coleridge  gave  the  postman  the  shilling,  and  the  woman  then  told  the  poet  that  the 
letter  was  really  nothing  more  than  a  blank  sheet  which  her  son  had  agreed  to  send 
her  every  three  months  to  let  her  know  he  was  well ;  as  she  always  declined  to  take 
this  dummy  letter,  it  of  course  cost  her  nothing.  See  G.  B.  Hill’s  Life  of  Sir 
Rowland  Hill,  I,  239,  note. 

2  The  London  papers  made  no  end  of  fun  of  the  first  envelopes  and  the  first 
postage-stamps  (1840).  See  the  facsimile  of  the  ridiculous  “  Mulready  Envelope” 
in  Hill’s'  Life,  I,  393. 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


375 


parliamentary  candidates.1  6.  The  division  of  the  whole  country 
into  equal  electoral  districts. 

The  Chartists  held  public  meetings,  organized  clubs,  and  pub¬ 
lished  newspapers  to  disseminate  their  principles,  but  for  many 
years  made  very  little  visible  progress.  The  French  revolution 
which  dethroned  King  Louis  Philippe  (1848)  imparted  fresh 
impetus  to  the  Chartist  movement.  The  leader  of  that  move¬ 
ment  was  Feargus  O’Connor.  He  formed  the  plan  of  sending  a 
monster  petition  to  Parliament,  containing,  it  was  claimed,  nearly 
five  million  signatures,  praying  for  the  passage  of  the  People’s 
Charter. 

A  procession  of  a  million  or  more  of  signers  was  to  act  as  an 
escort  to  the  document,  which  made  a  wagon-load  in  itself.  The 
Government  became  alarmed  at  the  threatened  demonstration, 
and  forbade  it,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  an  attempt  to  coerce 
legislation.  In  order  that  peace  might  be  preserved  in  London, 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  special  policemen  were  sworn  in, 
among  whom,  it  is  said,  was  Louis  Napoleon,  then  a  refugee 
in  England. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  took  command  of  a  large  body  of 
troops  held  in  reserve  to  defend  the  city ;  and  the  Bank  of 
England,  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  the  British  Museum,  and 
other  public  buildings  were  made  ready  to  withstand  a  siege. 

It  was  now  the  Chartists’  turn  to  be  frightened.  When  they 
assembled  (1848)  on  Kennington  Common  in  London,  they  num¬ 
bered  less  than  thirty  thousand,  and  the  procession  of  a  million 
which  was  to  march  across  Westminster  Bridge  dwindled  to  half 
a  dozen.  When  the  huge  petition  was  unrolled  it  was  found  to 
contain  only  about  a  third  of  the  boasted  number  of  names. 
Further  examination  showed  that  many  of  the  signatures  were  spu¬ 
rious,  having  been  put  down  in  jest,  or  copied  from  gravestones 

1  Property  qualification:  in  1711  an  act  was  passed  requiring  candidates  for 
election  to  the  House  of  Commons  to  have  an  income  of  not  less  than  ^300 
derived  from  landed  property.  The  object  of  this  law  was  to  secure  members 
who  would  be  comparatively  free  from  the  temptation  of  receiving  bribes  from  the 
Crown,  and  also  to  keep  the  landed  proprietors  in  power  to  the  exclusion  of  rich 
merchants.  This  law  was  repealed  in  1858. 


376  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


and  old  London  directories.  With  that  discovery  the  whole 
movement  collapsed,  and  the  House  of  Commons  rang  with 
“  inextinguishable  laughter  ”  over  the  national  scare. 

Still  the  demands  of  the  Chartists  had  a  solid  foundation  of 
good  sense,  which  not  even  the  blustering  bravado  of  the  leaders 
of  the  movement  could  wholly  destroy.  The  reforms  asked  for 
were  needed.  Since  then  the  steady,  quiet  influence  of  reason 
and  of  time  has  compelled  Parliament  to  grant  the  greater  part 
of  them.1 

The  printed  or  written  ballot  has  been  substituted  for  the  old 
method  of  electing  candidates  by  a  show  of  hands  or  by  shouting 
yes  or  no,  —  a  method  by  which  it  was  easy  to  make  blunders, 
and  equally  easy  to  commit  frauds.  The  property  qualification 
has  been  abolished,  so  that  the  poorest  day-laborer  may  now  run 
for  Parliament.  The  right  of  “manhood  suffrage”  has  been,  as 
we  shall  see,  greatly  extended,  and  before  the  twentieth  century 
has  far  advanced  it  seems  safe  to  say  that  every  man  in  England 
will  have  a  voice  in  the  elections. 

635.  The  Corn  Laws  (1841). — At  the  accession  of  the 
Queen  protective  duties  or  taxes  existed  in  Great  Britain  on  all 
imported  breadstuffs  and  on  many  manufactured  articles.  When 
Sir  Robert  Peel  became  Prime  Minister  (1841)  he  favored  a 
reduction  in  the  last  class  of  duties,  but  believed  it  necessary  to 
maintain  the  former  in  order  to  keep  up  the  price  of  grain  and 
thus  encourage  the  English  farmers.  The  result  of  this  policy 
was  great  distress  among  workingmen,  who  could  not  afford  out 
of  their  miserable  wages  to  pay  high  prices  for  bread.  A  num¬ 
ber  of  philanthropists  led  by  Richard  Cobden  and  John  Bright 
organized  an  Anti-Corn  Law  League  2  to  obtain  the  repeal  of  the 
grain  duties. 

At  the  same  time,  Ebenezer  Elliott,  the  “  Corn-Law  Rhymer,” 

1  Sir  Thomas  Erskine  May,  in  his  Constitutional  History  of  England,  says : 
“  Not  a  measure  has  been  forced  upon  Parliament  which  the  calm  judgment  of  a 
later  time  has  not  since  approved  ;  not  an  agitation  has  failed  which  posterity  has 
not  condemned.” 

2  Corn  is  the  name  given  in  England  to  wheat  or  other  grain  used  for  food. 
Indian  (  corn,  called  maize,  is  seldom  eaten. 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


377 


as  he  was  popularly  called,  gave  voice  to  the  sufferings  of  the  poor 
in  rude  but  vigorous  verse,  which  appealed  to  the  excited  feelings 
of  thousands  in  such  words  as  these  :  — 

“  England  !  what  for  mine  and  me, 

What  hath  bread-tax  done  for  thee  ? 


Cursed  thy  harvests,  cursed  thy  land, 

I  lunger-stung  thy  skill’d  right  hand.” 

When,  however,  session  after  session  of  Parliament  passed  and 
nothing  was  done  for  the  relief  of  the  perishing  multitudes,  many 
were  in  despair,  and  at  meetings  held  to  discuss  measures,  crowds 
joined  in  singing  Elliott’s  new  national  anthem  :  — 

“When  wilt  Thou  save  the  people? 

O  God  of  mercy  !  when  ? 

Not  kings  and  lords,  but  nations! 

Not  thrones  and  crowns,  but  men  ! 

Flowers  of  thy  heart,  O  God,  are  they  ! 

Let  them  not  pass,  like  weeds,  away  ! 

Their  heritage  a  sunless  day  ! 

God  save  the  people  !  ” 

Still  the  Government  was  not  convinced  ;  the  Corn  Laws  were 
enforced,  and  the  situation  grew  daily  more  desperate  and  more 
threatening. 

636-  The  Irish  Famine  (1845-1846)  ;  Repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws, 
1846-1849;  Free  Trade. — At  last  the  Irish  famine  opened  the 
Prime  Minister’s  eyes  (§  635).  When  in  Elizabeth’s  reign  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  introduced  the  cheap  but  precarious  potato  into 
Ireland,  his  motive  was  one  of  pure  good  will.  He  could  not 
foresee  that  it  would  in  time  become  in  that  country  an  almost 
universal  food,  that  through  its  very  abundance  the  population 
would  rapidly  increase,  and  that  then  by  the  sudden  failure  of  the 
crop  terrible  destitution  would  ensue.  Such  was  the  case  in  the 
summer  of  1845.  It  is  said  by  eye-witnesses  that  in  a  single 
night  the  entire  potato  crop  was  destroyed  by  blight,  and  that 
the  healthy  plants  were  transformed  into  a  mass  of  putrefying 


378  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


vegetation.  Thus  at  one  fell  stroke  the  food  of  nearly  a  whole 
nation  was  cut  off.1 

In  the  years  that  followed,  the  famine  became  appalling.  The 
starving  peasants  left  their  miserable  huts  and  streamed  into  the 
towns  for  relief,  only  to  die  of  hunger  in  the  streets. 

Parliament  responded  nobly  to  the  piteous  calls  for  help,  and 
voted  in  all  no  less  than  ^10,000,000  to  relieve  the  distress.2 
Subscriptions  were  also  taken  up  in  London  and  the  chief  towns, 
by  which  large  sums  were  obtained,  and  America  contributed 
shiploads  of  provisions  and  a  good  deal  of  money ;  but  the 
misery  was  so  great  that  even  these  measures  failed  to  accom¬ 
plish  what  was  hoped.  When  the  famine  was  over,  it  was  found 
that  Ireland  had  lost  about  two  million  (or  one-fourth)  of  her 
population.3  This  was  the  combined  effect  of  starvation,  of  the 
various  diseases  that  followed  in  its  path,  and  of  emigration.4 

In  the  face  of  such  appalling  facts,  and  of  the  bad  harvests 
and  distress  in  England,  the  Prime  Minister  could  hold  out  no 
longer,  and  by  a  gradual  process,  extending  from  1846  to  1849, 
the  obnoxious  Corn  Laws  were  repealed,  with  the  exception  of  a 
trifling  duty,  which  was  finally  removed  in  1869. 

The  beginning  once  made,  free  trade  in  nearly  everything, 
except  wine,  spirits,  and  tobacco,  followed.  They  were,  and  still 
are,  subject  to  a  heavy  duty,  perhaps  because  the  Government 
believes,  as  Napoleon  did,  that  the  vices  have  broad  backs  and 
can  comfortably  carry  the  heaviest  taxes.  A  few  years  later 
(1849)  the  old  Navigation  Laws  (§511)  were  totally  repealed. 
This  completed  the  English  free-trade  measures.  But,  by  a 
singular  contrast,  while  nearly  all  goods  and  products  now  enter 
England  free,  yet  Australia,  Canada,  and  nearly  every  other 
colony  continue  to  impose  duties  on  imports  from  the  mother- 
country. 

1  O’Connor,  The  Parnell  Movement  (The  Famine). 

2  Molesvvorth’s  History  of  England  from  1830. 

3  The  actual  number  of  deaths  from  starvation,  or  fever  caused  by  insufficient 
food,  was  estimated  at  from  two  hundred  thousand  to  three  hundred  thousand.  See 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  “  Ireland.” 

4  McCarthy,  History  of  Our  Own  Times,  Vol.  I. 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


379 


637.  The  World’s  Fair  (1851) ;  Repeal  of  the  Window  and  the 
Newspaper  Tax;  the  Atlantic  Cable  (1866). — The  great  indus¬ 
trial  exhibition  known  as  the  “World's  Fair”  was  opened  in 
Hyde  Park,  London  (1851).  The  original  plan  of  it  was  con¬ 
ceived  by  Prince  Albert.  It  proved  to  be  not  only  a  complete 
success  in  itself,  but  it  led  to  many  similar  fairs  on  the  part  of 
different  nations.  For  the  first  time  in  history  the  products 
and  inventions  of  all  the  countries  of  the  globe  were  brought 
together  under  one  roof,  in  a  gigantic  structure  of  glass  and  iron 
called  the  “  Crystal  Palace,”  which  is  still  in  use  for  exhibition 
purposes  at  Sydenham,  a  suburb  of  London. 

The  same  year  (1851)  the  barbarous  tax  on  light  and  air, 
known  as  the  “  Window  Tax,”  was  repealed  and  the  House  Tax 
substituted  for  it.  From  that  date  the  Englishman,  whether  in 
London  or  out,  might  enjoy  his  sunshine,  —  when  he  could  get 
it,  —  without  having  to  pay  for  every  beam  :  a  luxury  which  only 
the  rich  could  afford. 

A  little  later  (1855)  a  stamp  tax  on  newspapers,  which  had 
been  devised  in  Queen  Anne’s  time  in  the  avowed  hope  of  crush¬ 
ing  them  out,  was  repealed.  The  result  was  that  henceforth  the 
workingman,  as  he  sat  by  his  fireside,  could  inform  himself  of  what 
the  world  was  doing  and  thinking,  —  two  things  of  which  he  had 
before  known  almost  nothing,  and  cared,  perhaps,  even  less. 

To  get.  this  news  of  the  world’s  life  more  speedily,  the  first 
Atlantic  cable,  connecting  England  with  America,  was  laid  (1858). 
It  soon  gave  out,  but  was  permanently  relaid  not  long  afterward 
(1866).  Since  then  a  large  part  of  the  globe  has  been  joined  in 
like  manner,  and  all  the  great  cities  of  every  civilized  land  are 
practically  one  in  their  knowledge  of  events.  So  many  improve¬ 
ments  have  also  been  made  in  the  use  of  electricity,  not  only  for 
the  transmission  of  intelligence,  but  as  an  illuminator,  and  more 
recently  still  as  a  motive  power,  that  it  now  seems  probable  that 
“  the  age  of  steam  ”  is  soon  to  be  superseded  by  the  higher  “  age 
of  electricity.” 

638.  The  Opium  Y/ar  (1839)  ;  the  War  in  the  Crimea  (1854)  ; 
the  Rebellion  in  India  (1857).  —  For  nearly  twenty  years  after 


380  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 

Victoria’s  accession  no  wars  occurred  in  her  reign  worthy  of 
mention,  with  the  exception  of  that  with  China  (1839).  At  that 
time  the  Chinese  Emperor,  either  from  a  desire  to  put  a  stop  to 
the  consumption  of  opium  in  his  dominions,  or  because  he  wished 
to  encourage  the  home  production  of  the  drug,1  prohibited  its 
importation.  As  the  English  in  India  were  largely  engaged  in 
the  production  of  opium  for  the  Chinese  market,  —  the  people 
of  that  country  smoking  it  instead  of  tobacco,  —  the  British  Gov¬ 
ernment  insisted  that  the  Emperor  should  not  interfere  with  so 
lucrative  a  trade.  War  ensued. 

The  Chinese,  being  unable  to  contend  against  English  gun¬ 
boats,  were  soon  forced  to  withdraw  their  prohibition  of  the 
foreign  opium  traffic.  The  English  Government,  with  the  planters 
of  India,  reaped  a  golden  reward  of  many  millions  for  their 
deliberate  violation  of  the  rights  of  a  heathen  and  half-civilized 
people.  The  war  opened  five  important  ports  to  British  trade, 
and  subsequent  wars  opened  a  number  more  on  the  rivers  in  the 
interior.  This  action,  with  the  later  aggressions  of  other  Euro¬ 
pean  powers,  roused  an  intensely  bitter  feeling  among  large 
numbers  of  the  Chinese.  Their  hatred  of  foreigners  finally 
led  to  a  desperate  attempt  (1900)  to  drive  all  Europeans  and 
Americans,  including  missionaries,  out  of  the  country. 

Next,  Turkey  declared  war  against  Russia  (1853).  The  latter 
Power  had  insisted  on  protecting  all  Christians  in  the  Turkish 
dominions  against  the  oppression  of  the  Sultan.  England  and 
France  considered  the  Czar’s  championship  of  the  Christians  as  a 
mere  pretext  for  occupying  Turkish  territory.  To  prevent  this 
aggression  they  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Sultan,  which  resulted 
in  the  Russo-Turkish  war,  and  ended  by  the  taking  of  Sebastopol 
by  the  allied  forces.  Russia  was  obliged  to  retract  her  demands, 
and  peace  was  declared  (1856). 

1  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  opium  consumed  in  China  is  now  raised,  either 
with  or  without  the  full  consent  of  the  Government,  by  the  Chinese  themselves.  The 
probability  is  that  before  many  years  the  home  production  will  supply  the  entire 
demand,  and  thus  exclude  importations  of  the  drug  from  India.  It  is  estimated 
that  about  one  hundred  millions  of  the  population  of  China  are  addicted  to 
opium-smoking. 


1S37— 1901  ]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


381 


The  following  year  (1857)  was  memorable  for  the  outbreak  of 
the  Sepoy  rebellion  in  India.  The  real  cause  of  the  revolt  was 
probably  a  long-smothered  feeling  of  resentment  on  the  part  of 
the  Sepoy,  or  native,  troops  against  English  rule,  —  a  feeling 
that  dates  back  to  the  extortion  and  misgovernment  of  Warren 
Hastings  (§  603).  The  immediate  cause  of  the  uprising  was  the 
introduction  of  an  improved  rifle  using  a  greased  cartridge,  which 
had  to  be  bitten  off  before  being  rammed  down. 

To  the  Hindoo  the  fat  of  cattle  or  swine  is  an  abomination, 
and  his  religion  forbids  his  tasting  it.  An  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  British  Government  to  enforce  the  use  of  the  new  cartridge 
brought  on  a  general  mutiny  among  three  hundred  thousand 
Sepoys.  During  the  revolt  the  native  troops  perpetrated  the 
most  horrible  atrocities  on  the  English  women  and  children  who 
fell  into  their  hands.  When  the  insurrection  was  finally  quelled 
under  Havelock  and  Campbell,  the  English  soldiers  retaliated  by 
binding  numbers  of  prisoners  to  the  mouths  of  cannon  and  blow¬ 
ing  them  to  shreds.  At  the  close  of  the  rebellion,  the  government 
of  India  was  wholly  transferred  to  the  Crown,  and  later  the 
Queen  received  the  title  of  “Empress  of  India”  (1876). 

639.  Death  of  Prince  Albert ;  the  American  Civil  War  (1861). 
—  Not  long  after  the  Sepoy  rebellion  was  quelled,  Prince  Albert 
(§  632)  died  suddenly  (1861).  In  him  the  nation  lost  an  earnest 
promoter  of  social,  educational,  and  industrial  reforms,  and  the 
United  States,  a  true  and  judicious  friend,  who  at  a  most  critical 
period  in  the  Civil  War  used  his  influence  to  maintain  peace 
between  the  two  countries. 

After  his  death  the  Queen  held  no  court  for  many  years,  and 
so  complete  was  her  seclusion  that  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  a  radical 
member  of  Parliament,  suggested  (1868)  that  her  majesty  be 
invited  to  abdicate  or  choose  a  regent.  The  suggestion  was 
indignantly  rejected  ;  but  it  revealed  the  feeling,  which  quite 
generally  existed,  that  “  the  real  Queen  died  with  her  husband,” 
and  that  only  her  shadow  remained. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  (1861)  in  which  Prince  Albert  died, 
civil  war  broke  out  between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States  of 


382  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


the  American  Union.  A  few  weeks  later  the  Queen  issued  a 
proclamation  declaring  her  “determination  to  maintain  a  strict 
and  impartial  neutrality  in  the  contest  between  the  said  contend¬ 
ing  parties.”  The  rights  of  belligerents  —  in  other  words,  all  the 
rights  of  war  according  to  the  law  of  nations  —  were  granted  to 
the  South  equally  with  the  North;  and  her  majesty’s  subjects 
were  warned  against  aiding  either  side  in  the  conflict. 

The  progress  of  the  war  caused  terrible  distress  in  Lancashire, 
owing  to  the  cutting  off  of  supplies  of  cotton  for  the  mills  through 
the  blockade  of  the  ports  of  the  Confederate  States.  The  starving 
weavers,  however,  gave  their  moral  support  to  the  North,  and 
continued  steadfast  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  even  in  the  sorest 
period  of  their  suffering.  The  great  majority  of  the  manufacturers 
and  business-classes  generally,  and  the  nobility,  with  a  few  excep¬ 
tions,  sympathized  with  the  efforts  of  the  South  to  establish  an 
independent  Confederacy.  Most  of  the  distinguished  political  and 
social  leaders,  in  Parliament  and  out,  with  nearly  all  the  influen¬ 
tial  journals,  were  on  the  same  side  and  were  openly  hostile  to  the 
Union.1 

Late  in  the  autumn  (1861)  Captain  Wilkes,  of  the  United 
States  Navy,  boarded  the  British  mail-steamer  Trent,  and  seized 
Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell,  Confederate  commissioners,  on  their 
way  to  England.  When  intelligence  of  the  act  was  conveyed  to 
President  Lincoln,  he  expressed  his  unqualified  disapproval  of  it, 
saying:  “This  is  the  very  thing  the  British  captains  used  to  do. 
They  claimed  the  right  of  searching  American  ships,  and  taking 
men  out  of  them.  That  was  the  cause  of  the  War  of  1812.  Now, 

1  Lord  John  Russell  (Foreign  Secretary),  Lord  Brougham,  Sir  John  Bowring, 
Carlyle,  Ruskin,  and  the  London  Times  and  Punch  espoused  the  cause  of  the  South 
more  or  less  openly;  while  others,  like  Mr.  Gladstone,  declared  their  full  belief  in 
the  ultimate  success  of  the  Confederacy. 

On  the  other  hand,  Prince  Albert,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  John  Bright,  John  Stuart 
Mill,  Professor  Newman,  and  the  London  Daily  News  defended  the  cause  of  the 
North. 

After  the  death  of  President  Lincoln,  Punch  manfully  acknowledged  (see  issue 
of  May  6,  1865)  that  it  had  been  altogether  wrong  in  its  estimate  of  him  and  his 
measures;  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  his  Kin  beyond  Sea  in  Gleanings  of  Past  Years, 
paid  a  noble  tribute  to  the  course  pursued  by  America  since  the  close  of  the  war. 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


383 


we  cannot  abandon  our  own  principles ;  we  shall  have  to  give  up 
these  men,  and  apologize  for  what  we  have  done.” 

The  British  Government  made  a  formal  demand  that  the 
commissioners  should  be  given  up.  Through  the  influence  of 
the  Prince-Consort,  and  with  the  approval  of  the  Queen,  this 
demand  was  couched  in  most  conciliatory  language.  Slidell  and 
Mason  were  handed  over  to  Great  Britain,  and  an  apology 
was  made  by  Secretary  Seward. 

During  the  progress  of  the  war  a  number  of  fast-sailing  vessels 
were  fitted  out  in  England,  and  employed  in  running  the  block¬ 
ade  of  the  Southern  ports,  to  supply  them  with  arms,  ammunition, 
and  manufactured  goods  of  various  kinds.  Later,  several  gun¬ 
boats  were  built  in  British  shipyards  by  agents  of  the  Confeder¬ 
ate  government,  for  the  purpose  of  attacking  the  commerce  of 
the  United  States.  The  most  famous  of  these  privateers  was 
the  Alabama,  built  expressly  for  the  Confederate  service  by  the 
Lairds,  of  Birkenhead,  armed  with  British  cannon,  and  manned 
chiefly  by  British  sailors. 

Charles  Francis  Adams,  the  American  Minister  at  London, 
notified  Lord  Palmerston,  the  Prime  Minister,  of  her  true  char¬ 
acter.  But  Palmerston  permitted  the  Alabama  to  leave  port 
(1862),  satisfied  with  the  pretext  that  she  was  going  on  a  trial 
trip.1  She  set  sail  on  her  career  of  destruction,  and  soon  drove 
nearly  every  American  merchant-vessel  from  the  seas.  Two 
years  later  (1864)  she  was  defeated  and  sunk  by  the  United 
States  gunboat  Kearsarge.  After  the  war  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  demanded  damages  from  Great  Britain  for 
losses  caused  by  the  Alabama  and  other  English-built  privateers. 

A  treaty  was  agreed  to  by  the  two  nations ;  and  by  its  pro¬ 
visions  an  international  court  was  held  at  Geneva,  Switzerland 
(1872),  which  awarded  $15,500,000  in  gold  as  compensation  to 
the  United  States,  which  was  duly  paid.  The  most  important 
result  of  this  treaty  and  tribunal  was  that  they  established  a 
precedent  for  settling  by  arbitration  on  equitable  and  amicable 

1  The  Queen’s  advocate  gave  his  opinion  that  the  Alabama  should  be  detained ; 
but  it  reached  the  Foreign  Secretary  (Lord  Russell)  just  after  she  had  put  to  sea. 


384  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


terms  whatever  questions  might  arise  in  future  between  the 
o  nations.1 


640.  Municipal  Reform  (1835);  Woman  Suffrage;  the  Jews; 
the  Second  and  Third  Reform  Acts  (1867,  1884);  County  and 
Parish  Councils  (1888,  1894).  —  Excellent  as  was  the  Reform  Bill 
of  1832  (§  625),  it  did  not  go  far  enough.  There  was  also  great 
need  of  municipal  reform,  since  in  many  cities  the  tax-payers  had 
no  voice  in  the  management  of  local  affairs,  and  the  city  officers 
spent  the  income  of  large  charitable  funds  in  feasting  and  merry¬ 
making  while  the  poor  got  little  or  nothing. 

A  law  was  passed  (1835)  giving  tax-payers  in  cities  (except 
London)  control  of  municipal  elections.  By  a  subsequent  amend-  1 
ment,  the  ballot  in  such  cases  was  extended  to  women,2 * * * * *  and  for 
the  first  time  perhaps  .in  modern  history  woman  suffrage  was  for¬ 
mally  granted  by  supreme  legislative  act.  A  number  of  years  later 
the  political  restrictions  imposed  on  the  Jews  were  removed. 

The  Jews,  as  a  class,  were  often  wealthy  and  influential  in 
London  and  some  other  cities.  They  were  entitled  to  vote 
and  hold  municipal  office,  but  they  were  debarred  from  Parliament 
by  a  law  which  required  them  to  make  oath  “  on  the  faith  of  a 
Christian.”  The  law  was  now  so  modified  (1858)  that  Baron 
Rothschild8  took  his  seat  among  the  legislators  of  the  country. 
Finally  the  Oaths  Act  (1888)  abolished  all  religious  tests  in 
Parliament. 

In  1867  Mr.  Disraeli  (aftenvard  Earl  of  Beaconsfield),  the 
leader  of  the  Tory  or  Conservative  party,  brought  in  a  second 
Reform  Bill  (§  625),  which  became  a  law.  This  provided  what 

1  This  treaty  imposed  duties  on  neutral  governments  of  a  far  more  stringent  sort 
than  Great  Britain  had  hitherto  been  willing  to  concede.  It  resulted,  furthermore, 
in  the  passage  of  an  act  of  Parliament,  punishing  with  severe  penalties  such  illegal 
ship-building  as  that  of  the  Alabama.  See  Sheldon  Amos,  Fifty  Years  of  the 
English  Constitution,  1S30-1SS0. 

2  Woman  suffrage  in  municipal  elections  was  granted  to  single  women  and 

widows  (householders)  in  1869.  In  1870  an  act  was  passed  enabling  them  to  vote  at 

school-board  elections,  and  also  to  become  members  of  such  boards.  By  act  of  1894 

women  were  made  eligible  to  sit  and  vote  in  district  and  parish  councils  (or  local 

government  elections). 

Rothschild  (Ros'child,  English  pronunciation). 


837-1 9°'] 


GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


385 


is  called  “  household  suffrage,”  or,  in  other  words,  gave  the  right 
to  vote  to  all  male  householders  in  the  English  parliamentary 
boroughs  (that  is,  towns  having  the  right  to  elect  one  or  more 
members  to  Parliament),  who  paid  a  tax  for  the  support  of  the 
poor,  and  to  all  lodgers  paying  a  rental  of  ^10  yearly;  it  also 
increased  the  number  of  voters  among  small  property-holders 
in  counties.1 

There  still,  however,  remained  a  large  class  in  the  country  dis¬ 
tricts  for  whom  nothing  had  been  done.  The  men  who  tilled 
the  soil  were  wretchedly  poor  and  deplorably  ignorant.  Joseph 
Arch,  a  Warwickshire  farm  laborer,  who  had  been  educated  by 
hunger  and  toil,  succeeded  in  establishing  a  national  union 
among  men  of  his  class,  of  which  he  became  president,  and 
eventually,  mainly  through  his  efforts,  they  secured  the  ballot. 
A  third  Reform  Act  (1884)  gave  all  residents  of  counties  through¬ 
out  the  United  Kingdom  the  right  to  vote  on  the  same  conditions 
as  the  residents  of  towns.2 

It  is  estimated  that  this  law  added  about  two  and  a  half  millions 
of  voters,  and  that  there  is  now  one  voter  to  every  six  persons  of 
the  total  population,  'whereas,  before  the  passing  of  the  first  Re¬ 
form  Bill  (1832),  there  was  not  over  one  in  fifty.  In  the  first 
“People’s  Parliament”  (1886)  Joseph  Arch,  and  several  others, 
were  returned  as  representatives  of  classes  of  the  population  who, 
up  to  that  date,  had  no  voice  in  the  legislation  of  the  country.  The 
next  step  will  probably  bring  universal  “  manhood  suffrage.” 
The  County  Council  and  Parish  Council  acts  (1888,  1894) 
greatly  extended  the  power  of  the  people  in  all  matters  of  local 
government,  so  that  now  every  village  in  England  controls  its 
own  affairs. 

641.  Abolition  of  Compulsory  Church  Rates  ;  Disestablish¬ 
ment  of  the  Irish  Episcopal  Church  (1869)  ;  the  Education 
Acts.  —  While  these  reforms  were  taking  place  with  respect  to 
elections,  others  of  great  importance  were  also  being  effected. 
Since  its  establishment  the  Church  of  England  had  compelled  all 


1  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxvi,  §  31. 

2  See  above  reference. 


386  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


persons,  of  whatever  belief,  to  pay  taxes  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  church  of  the  parish  where  they  resided.  Methodists,  Bap¬ 
tists,  and  other  Dissenters  (§§  548,  556)  objected  to  this  law  as 
unjust,  since  in  addition  to  the  expense  of  supporting  their  own 
form  of  worship,  they  were  obliged  to  contribute  toward  main¬ 
taining  one  with  which  they  had  no  sympathy.  So  great  had  the 
opposition  become  to  paying  their  “church  rates,”  that  there 
were  over  fifteen  hundred  parishes  in  England  (1859)  in  which 
the  authorities  could  not  collect  them.  After  much  agitation 
Mr.  Gladstone  carried  through  a  bill  (1868)  which  abolished  this 
mode  of  tax  and  made  the  payment  of  rates  purely  voluntary.1 

A  similar  act  of  justice  was  soon  after  granted  to  Ireland 
(1869). 2  At  the  time  of  the  union  of  the  two  countries  in  1800 
(§  609),  the  maintenance  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
continued  to  remain  obligatory  upon  the  Irish  people,  although 
only  a  very  small  part  of  them  were  of  that  faith.  Mr.  Glad¬ 
stone’s  law  disestablishing  this  branch  of  the  National  Church 
left  all  religious  denominations  in  Ireland  to  the  voluntary  sup¬ 
port  of  those  who  belonged  to  them.  Elenceforth  the  English 
Protestant  resident  in  that  country  could  no  longer  claim  the  privi¬ 
lege  of  worshipping  God  at  the  expense  of  his  Roman  Catholic 
neighbor. 

In  1870  Mr.  Forster,  a  member  of  the  Cabinet,  succeeded  in 
passing  the  Elementary  Education  Act.  It  established  a  system 
of  common  schools  throughout  the  kingdom  under  the  direction 
of  a  government  board,  and  hence  popularly  known  as  “  Board 
Schools.”  Up  to  this  date  most  of  the  children  of  the  poor  had 
been  educated  in  schools  maintained  by  the  Church  of  England, 
the  various  dissenting  denominations,  and  by  charitable  associa¬ 
tions,  or  such  endowments  as  those  of  Edward  VI  (§417). 

It  was  found,  however,  that  more  than  half  of  the  children  of  the 
country  were  not  reached  by  these  institutions,  but  were  growing 


1  Church  rates  were  levied  on  all  occupiers  of  land  or  houses  within  the  parish. 
The  Church  of  England  is  now  mainly  supported  by  a  tax  on  landowners,  and  by  its 
endowments. 

2 'The  Disestablishment  Bill  was  passed  in  1869,  and  took  effect  in  1871. 


1 837—1 9°i ]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE  387 

up  in  such  a  state  of  dense  ignorance  that  in  the  agricultural  dis¬ 
tricts  a  large  proportion  could  neither  read  nor  write.  By  the 
“  Board  Schools  ”  elementary  instruction  was  made  compulsory, 
and,  later  (1891),  Parliament  passed  an  act  which  practically 
made  education,  up  to  the  age  of  fifteen,  free  to  the  poorest. 

Meanwhile  (1871)  the  universities  and  colleges,  with  most  of 
the  offices  and  professorships  connected  with  them,  were  thrown 
open  to  all  persons  without  regard  to  religious  belief ;  whereas, 
formerly,  no  one  could  graduate  from  Oxford  or  Cambridge 
without  subscribing  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England. 

642.  The  First  Irish  Land  Act  (1870).  — The  same  year  that 
the  Government  undertook  to  provide  for  the  education  of  the 
masses  (1870)  (§  641),  Mr.  Gladstone,  then  Prime  Minister  and 
head  of  the  Liberal  party  (§  626),  brought  in  a  bill  for  the  relief  of 
the  Irish  peasantry.  Since  the  union  (§  609)  much  of  the  general 
policy  of  England  toward  Ireland  had  been  described  as  “a  quick 
alternation  of  kicks  and  kindness.”  Gladstone  did  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  he  believed  that  the  misery  of  the  island  sprang 
mainly  from  its  misgovernment.  He  thought  that  the  small 
farmer  needed  immediate  help.  The  circumstances  under  which 
land  was  held  in  Ireland  were  peculiar.  A  very  large  part  —  in 
fact  about  all  the  best  of  that  island  —  was  owned  by  Englishmen 
whose  ancestors  obtained  it  through  the  wholesale  confiscations 
of  James  I,  Cromwell  (§§  475,  505),  and  later  sovereigns,  in 
punishment  for  rebellion. 

Very  few  English  landlords  cared  to  reside  in  the  country  or 
to  do  anything  for  its  improvement.  Their  overseers  believed 
they  did  their  whole  duty  when  they  forced  the  farm  tenants  to 
pay  the  largest  amount  of  rent  that  could  be  wrung  from  them, 
and  they  had  it  in  their  power  to  dispossess  a  tenant  of  his  land 
whenever  they  saw  fit,  without  giving  a  reason  for  the  act.  If  by 
his  labor  the  tenant  made  the  land  more  fertile,  he  reaped  no 
profit  from  his  industry,  for  the  rent  was  at  once  increased,  and 
swallowed  up  all  that  he  raised.  Such  a  system  of  extortion  was 
destructive  to  the  peasant  farmer,  and  produced  nothing  for  him 
but  misery  and  discontent. 


388  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


The  new  law  endeavored  to  remedy  these  evils  by  providing, 
first,  that  if  a  landlord  ejected  a  rent-paying  tenant,  he  should  pay 
him  damages,  and  allow  him  a  fair  sum  for  whatever  improve¬ 
ments  he  had  made.  Secondly,  provision  was  made  for  a  ready 
means  of  arbitration  between  landlord  and  tenant,  and  the  tenant 
who  failed  to  pay  an  exorbitant  rate  was  not  to  be  hastily  or 
unjustly  driven  from  the  land.  Finally,  the  tenant  might  bor¬ 
row  a  certain  sum  from  the  Government  for  the  purpose  of 
purchasing  the  land  in  case  the  owner  was  willing  to  sell. 

643.  Distress  in  Ireland;  the  Land  League  (1879).  —  It  was 
hoped  by  the  friends  of  the  measure  that  the  new  law  would  be 
productive  of  relief ;  but  the  potato  crop  again  failed  in  Ireland 
(1876-1879),  and  the  country  seemed  threatened  with  another 
great  famine  (§  636).  Thousands  who  could  not  get  the  means 
to  pay  even  a  moderate  rent,  much  less  the  amounts  demanded, 
were  now  forced  to  leave  their  cabins  and  seek  shelter  in  the 
bogs,  with  the  prospect  of  dying  there  of  starvation. 

This  deplorable  state  of  things  led  a  number  of  influential 
Irishmen  to  form  a  Land  League  (1879).  It  had  for  its  object 
the  abolition  of  the  landlord  system,  and  the  securing  of  such 
legislation  as  should  eventually  give  the  Irish  peasantry  possession 
of  the  soil  they  cultivated. 

Later,  the  League  came  to  have  a  membership  of  several 
hundred  thousand  persons,  extending  over  the  greater  part  of 
Ireland.  Finding  that  it  was  difficult  to  get  parliamentary  help 
for  their  grievances,  the  League  resolved  to  try  a  different  kind 
of  tactics.  Accordingly  they  formed  a  compact  not  to  work  for, 
buy  from,  sell  to,  or  have  any  intercourse  with,  landlords,  or  their 
agents,  who  extorted  exorbitant  rent,  ejected  tenants  unable  to 
pay,  or  took  possession  of  land  from  which  tenants  had  been 
unjustly  driven.  This  process  of  social  excommunication  was 
first  tried  on  an  English  agent,  or  overseer,  named  Boycott,  and 
soon  became  famous  under  the  name  of  “  boycotting.” 

As  the  struggle  went  on,  many  of  the  suffering  poor  became 
desperate.  Farm  buildings  belonging  to  landlords  and  their 
agenis  were  burned,  cattle  horribly  mutilated,  and  a  number  of 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


389 


the  agents  shot.  At  the  same  time  the  cry  rose  of  “No  Rent, 
Death  to- the  Landlords  !  ”  Hundreds  of  tenants  now  refused  to 
pay  for  the  places  they  held,  and  even  attacked  those  who  did. 

Eventually  the  lawlessness  of  the  country  provoked  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  to  take  severe  measures ;  it  suppressed  the  Land  League 
(1881),  which  was  believed  to  be  responsible  for  the  refusal  to 
pay  rent,  and  for  the  accompanying  outrages ;  but  it  could  not 
extinguish  the  feeling  which  gave  rise  to  that  organization,  and  it 
soon  burst  forth  more  violently  than  ever. 

644.  The  Second  Irish  Land  Act  (1881)  ;  Fenian  and  Commu¬ 
nist  Outrages - Mr.  Gladstone  succeeded  in  carrying  through  a 

second  Irish  land  law  (1881)  (§  642),  which  it  was  hoped  might 
be  more  effective  in  relieving  the  Irish  peasants  than  the  first 
had  been.  This  measure  was  familiarly  known  as  the  “  Three  F’s,” 
—  Fair-rent,  Fixity-of-tenure,  and  Free-sale.  By  the  provisions 
of  this  act  the  tenant  can  appeal  to  a  board  of  land  commission¬ 
ers  appointed  by  the  law  to  fix  the  rate  of  his  rent  in  case  the 
demands  made  by  the  landlord  seem  to  him  excessive. 

Next,  he  can  continue  to  hold  his  farm,  provided  he  pays  the 
rate  determined  on,  for  a  period  of  fifteen  years,  during  which 
time  the  rent  cannot  be  raised  nor  the  tenant  evicted  except  for 
violation  of  agreement  or  persistent  neglect  or  waste  of  the  land  ; 
lastly,  he  may  sell  his  tenancy  when  he  sees  fit  to  the  highest 
bidder.  This  law  was  later  amended  and  extended  in  the  interest 
of  the  peasant  farmer  (1887). 

The  year  following  the  passage  of  this  second  Land  Act,  Lord 
Frederick  Cavendish,  chief  secretary  of  Ireland,  and  Mr.  Burke, 
a  prominent  government  official,  were  murdered  in  Phoenix  Park, 
Dublin  (1882).  Later,  members  of  various  secret  and  commu¬ 
nistic  societies  perpetrated  dynamite  outrages  in  London  and 
other  parts  of  England  for  the  purpose  of  intimidating  the  Gov¬ 
ernment.  These  dastardly  plots  for  destruction  and  murder  were 
denounced  with  horror  by  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  National  Party, 
who  declared  that  “  the  cause  of  Ireland  was  not  to  be  served  by 
the  knife  of  the  assassin  or  the  infernal  machine.” 

Notwithstanding  the  vindictive  feeling  which  these  rash  acts 


390  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 

caused,  despite  also  of  the  passage  of  the  Coercion  Bill  (1887), 
the  majority  of  the  more  intelligent  and  thoughtful  of  the  Irish 
people  had  faith  in  the  logic  of  events.  They  believed  it  would 
ultimately  obtain  for  them  the  full  enjoyment  of  those  political 
rights  which  England  so  fully  possesses.  It  will  be  seen  (§  656) 
that  recent  legislation  has  justified  their  faith.1 

645.  The  Leading  Names  in  Science,  Literature,  and  Art.  —  In 
the  progress  of  science  the  present  age  has  had  no  equal  in  the 
past  history  of  England,  except  in  the  discovery  of  the  law  of 
gravitation  by  Sir  Isaac  Newton  (§  533).  That  great  thinker 
demonstrated  that  all  forms  of  matter,  great  or  small,  near  or 
distant,  are  governed  by  one  universal  law.  In  like  manner  the 
researches  of  the  past  fifty  years  have  virtually  established  the 
belief  that  all  material  forms,  whether  living  or  not,  obey  an 
equally  universal  law  of  development,  by  which  the  higher  are 
derived  from  the  lower  through  a  succession  of  gradual  but 
progressive  changes. 

This  conception  originated  long  before  the  beginning  of  the 
Victorian  era,  but  it  lacked  the  acknowledged  support  of  care¬ 
fully  examined  facts,  and  was  regarded  by  most  sensible  men  as 
a  plausible  but  untenable  idea.  The  thinker  who  did  more  than 
any  other  to  supply  the  facts,  and  to  put  the  theory,  so  far  as  it 
relates  to  natural  history,  on  a  solid  and  lasting  foundation,  was 
the  distinguished  English  naturalist,  Charles  Darwin.2  At  his 
death  (1882)  he  found  an  honored  resting-place  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  near  the  graves  of  the  well-known  geologist,  Sir  Charles 
Lyell,  and  Livingstone,  the  African  explorer. 

On  his  return  (1837)  from  a  voyage  of  scientific  discovery 
round  the  world,  Darwin  began  to  examine  and  classify  the  facts 
which  he  had  collected,  and  continued  to  collect,  relating  to  nat¬ 
ural  history.  After  twenty-two  years  of  uninterrupted  labor  he 
published  a  work  (“The  Origin  of  Species”)  (1859),  in  which  he 

1  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxviii,  §  33. 

2  Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  also  noted  as  a  naturalist,  worked  out  the  theory  of 
evolution  by  “  natural  selection  ”  about  the  same  time,  though  not  so  fully,  with 
respect  to  details,  as  Darwin  ;  as  each  of  these  investigators  arrived  at  his  conclusions 
independently  of  the  other,  the  theory  was  thus  doubly  confirmed. 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


391 


aimed  to  show  that  animal  life  owes  its  course  of  development  to 
the  struggle  for  existence  and  “  the  survival  of  the  fittest.” 

Darwin’s  work  may  truthfully  be  said  to  have  wrought  a  revo¬ 
lution  in  the  study  of  nature  as  great  as  that  accomplished  by 
Newton  in  the  seventeenth  century  (§  533).  Though  calling 
forth  the  most  heated  and  prolonged  discussion,  the  Darwinian 
theory  has  gradually  made  its  way,  and  is  now  generally  received, 
though  sometimes  in  a  modified  form,  by  nearly  every  eminent 
man  of  science  throughout  the  world. 

A  little  later  than  the  date  at  which  Mr.  Darwin  began  his 
researches,  Sir  William  Grove,  an  eminent  electrician,  commenced 
a  series  of  experiments  which  have  led  to  a  great  change  in  our 
conceptions  of  matter  and  force.  He  showed  that  heat,  light,  and 
electricity  are  mutually  convertible  ;  that  they  must  be  regarded 
as  modes  of  motion ;  and,  finally,  that  all  force  is  persistent  and 
indestructible,1  thus  proving,  as  Professor  Tyndall  says,  that  “  to 
nature,  nothing  can  be  added  ;  from  nature,  nothing  can  be  taken 
away.”  Together,  these,  with  kindred  discoveries,  have  resulted 
in  the  theory  of  evolution,  or  development,  which  Herbert 
Spencer  and  others  have  endeavored  to  make  the  basis  of  a  system 
of  philosophy  embracing  the  whole  field  of  nature  and  life. 

In  literature  so  many  names  of  note  are  found  that  the  mere 
enumeration  of  them  would  be  impracticable  here.  It  will  be  suf¬ 
ficient  to  mention  the  novelists,  Dickens,  Thackeray,  Bronte,  and 
“George  Eliot”;  the  historians,  Stubbs,  Hallam,  Arnold,  Grote, 
Macaulay,  Alison,  Buckle,  Froude,  Freeman,  and  Gardiner;  the 
essayists,  Carlyle,  Landor,  and  De  Quincey ;  the  poets,  Browning 
and  Tennyson ;  the  philosophical  writers,  Hamilton,  Mill,  and 
Spencer ;  with  Lyell,  Faraday,  Carpenter,  Tyndall,  Huxley,  Dar¬ 
win,  Wallace,  and  Lord  Kelvin  in  science ;  John  Ruskin,  the 
eminent  art-critic  ;  and  in  addition,  the  chief  artists  of  the  period, 
Millais,  Rossetti,  Burne-Jones,  Watts,  and  Hunt. 

646.  The  Queen’s  Jubilee  (1887),  and  her  “Diamond  Jubilee” 
(1897);  Review  of  Sixty  Years  of  English  History  (1837-1897). 
—  In  the  summer  of  1887  Queen  Victoria  celebrated  the  fiftieth 
1  See  An  Essay  on  the  Correlation  of  Physical  Forces,  by  W.  R.  Grove. 


392  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


year  of  her  reign;  ten  years  later  (June  22,  1897)  the  nation 
spontaneously  rose  to  do  honor  to  her  “Diamond  Jubilee.”  The 
splendid  military  pageant  which  marked  that  event  in  London 
was  far  more  than  a  brilliant  show,  for  it  demonstrated  the 
enthusiastic  loyalty  of  the  English  people  and  of  the  English 
colonies. 

The  real  meaning  of  the  occasion  is  best  sought  in  a  review 
of  the  record  of  the  past  threescore  years.  They  have  been, 
in  large  degree,  a  period  of  progress ;  perhaps,  in  fact,  no  sim¬ 
ilar  period  in  European  history  has  been  so  “  crowded  with 
benefit  to  humanity.” 

When  Victoria  came  to  the  throne  in  her  nineteenth  year 
(1837)  she  found  the  kingdom  seething  with  discontent,  and  the 
province  of  Canada  approaching  rebellion.  In  business  circles 
reckless  speculation  and  the  bursting  of  “Bubble  Companies” 
had  been  followed  by  “  tight  money  ”  and  “  hard  times.”  Among 
the  poor  matters  were  far  worse.  Wages  were  lc»v,  work  was 
scarce,  bread  was  dear.  In  the  cities  half-fed  multitudes  lived 
in  cellars ;  in  the  country  the  same  class  occupied  wretched 
cottages  hardly  better  than  cellars.1 

The  “  New  Poor  Law  ”  (§  45s),2  which  had  recently  gone  into 
effect  (1834),  eventually  accomplished  much  good;  but  for  a 
time  it  forced  many  laborers  into  the  workhouse.  This  result 

1  See  Cobbett’s  Rural  Rides,  1821-1832. 

2  The  “  New  Poor  Law”  (§455)  :  between  1691  and  1834  the  administration  of 
relief  for  the  poor  was  in  the  hands  of  justices  of  the  peace,  who  gave  aid  indiscrimi¬ 
nately  to  those  who  begged  for  it.  In  1 795  wages  for  ordinary  laborers  were  so  low 
thatahe  justices  resolved  to  grant  an  allowance  to  every  poor  family  in  accordance 
with  its  numbers.  The  result  of  this  mistaken  kindness  was  speedily  seen ;  employ¬ 
ers  cut  down  wages  to  the  starvation  point,  knowing  that  the  magistrates  would  give 
help  out  of  the  poor  fund.  The  consequence  was  that  the  tax  rate  for  relief  of  the 
poor  rose  to  a  degree  that  became  unbearable. 

The  “  New  Poor  Law  ”  of  1834  effected  a  sweeping  reform :  1.  It  forbade  outdoor 
relief  to  the  able-bodied  poor,  and  thus,  in  the  end,  compelled  the  employer  to  give 
better  wages  (but  outdoor  relief  is  now  frequently  granted).  2.  It  restricted  aid  to  that 
given  in  workhouses,  where  the  recipient,  if  in  good  health,  was  obliged  to  labor  in 
return  for  what  he  received.  3.  It  greatly  reduced  the  expense  of  supporting  the 
poor  by  uniting  parishes  in  workhouse  “  unions.”  4.  It  modified  the  old  rigid  Law 
of  Settlement,  thereby  making  it  possible  for  those  seeking  employment  to  take  their 
labor  td  the  best  market. 


837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


393 


aggravated  the  suffering  and  discontent,  and  the  predominant 
feeling  of  the  day  may  be  seen  reflected  in  the  pages  of  Dickens, 
Kingsley,  and  Carlyle.1 

Notwithstanding  the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill  (1832)  (§  625), 
political  power  was  still  held  chiefly  by  men  of  property  who 
distrusted  the  masses  of  the  people.  They  feared  that  the 
widespread  distress  would  culminate  in  riots,  if  not  in  open 
insurrection. 

The  Chartist  movement  (§  634),  which  speedily  began  (1838), 
seemed  to  justify  their  apprehension.  But  the  dreaded  revolt 
never  came  ;  the  evils  of  the  times  were  gradually  alleviated  and, 
in  some  cases,  cured.  Confidence  slowly  took  the  place  of  dis¬ 
trust  and  fear.  When,  in  June,  1897,  the  Queen’s  “Diamond 
Jubilee  ”  procession  moved  from  Buckingham  Palace  to  St.  Paul’s, 
and  thence  through  one  of  the  poorest  quarters  of  London,  none 
of  the  dense  mass  that  filled  the  streets  cheered  more  lustily  than 
those  who  must  always  earn  their  daily  bread  by  their  daily  toil. 

The  explanation  of  this  marvellous  change  is  to  be  found  in 
the  progress  of  good  government,  the  extension  of  popular  rights, 
and  the  advance  of  material  improvements.  Let  us  consider 
these  changes  in  their  natural  order. 

647.  The  Broadening  of  the  Basis  of  Suffrage  ( 1832-1894). 2  — 
We  have  already  described  the  far-reaching  effects  of  the  Reform 
Bill  (§  625)  of  1832,  which  granted  representation  in  Parliament 
to  a  number  of  large  towns  hitherto  without  a  voice  in  the  National 
Legislature.  Three  years  later  (1835)  came  the  Municipal  Reform 
Act.  It  placed  the  government  of  towns,  with  the  exception  of 
London,3  in  the  hands  of  the  tax-payers  who  lived  in  them. 

This  radical  measure  put  a  stop  to  the  arbitrary  and  corrupt 

1  See  Dickens’  Oliver  Twist  (1838);  Carlyle’s  Chartism  (1839)  ;  and  Kingsley’s 
Yeast,  and  Alton  Locke  (1849). 

2  See  Summary  of  Constitutional  History  in  the  Appendix,  page  xxvi,  §  31. 

3  London  proper,  a  district  covering  about  a  square  mile,  and  once  enclosed  by 
walls,  is  still  governed  by  a  lord  mayor,  court  of  aldermen,  and  a  common  council 
elected  mainly  by  members  of  the  “  city  ”  companies,  representing  the  medisval  trade 
guilds  (§  326).  The  metropolis  outside  the  “  city  ”  is  governed  by  the  London  County 
Council  and  by  the  Vestries  or  Parish  Councils,  elected  by  the  men  and  women 
residing  in  the  parishes. 


394  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1S37-1901 


management  which  had  existed  when  the  town  officers  elected 
themselves  and  held  their  positions  for  life  (§  640).  Further¬ 
more,  it  prevented  parliamentary  candidates  from  buying  up  the 
entire  municipal  vote,  —  a  thing  which  frequently  happened  so 
long  as  the  towns  were  under  the  absolute  control  of  a  few 
individuals. 

A  generation  passed  before  the  next  important  step  was  taken. 
Then,  as  we  have  seen,  the  enactment  of  the  Second  Reform 
Bill  (1867)  (§  640)  doubled  the  number  of  voters  in  England. 
The  next  year  an  act  reduced  the  property  qualification  for 
suffrage  in  Scotland  and  Ireland ;  thus  the  ballot  w'as  largely 
increased  throughout  the  United  Kingdom. 

The  Third  Reform  Act  (1884)  (§  640)  granted  the  right  of 
suffrage  to  more  than  two  million  persons,  chiefly  of  the  agri¬ 
cultural  and  laboring  classes.  Since  that  date,  whether  the 
Liberals  or  the  Conservatives 1  have  been  in  power,  “  the 
country,”  as  Professor  Gardiner  says,  “has  been  under  demo¬ 
cratic  influence.” 

But  though  these  acts  wrought  an  immense  change  by  trans¬ 
ferring  political  powder  from  the  hands  of  the  few  to  the  nation  at 
large,  further  progress  in  this  direction  was  destined  to  come 
soon.  Originally  the  government  of  the  shires,  or  counties,  w'as 
in  the  hands  of  the  people  ;  they  gradually  lost  it,  and  the  wealthy 
landed  proprietors  obtained  control.  The  Local  Government, 
or  County  Councils,  Act  (1888)  restored  the  pow'er  in  great 
measure  to  those  who  had  parted  with  it,  by  putting  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  county  affairs  under  the  direction  of  a  council  elected 
by  the  householders  of  the  shire.  This  council  looks  after  the 
highways,  the  sanitary  condition  of  towrns,  the  education  of 
children,  and  the  care  of  the  poor. 

Six  years  later  (1894)  the  principle  of  self-government  was 
carried  almost  to  the  farthest  point  by  the  passage  of  the  Parish 
Councils  Bill.  This  did  for  small  local  populations  what  the 

1  In  1832  the  Whigs  (§  531),  who  were  divided  into  a  moderate  and  a  radical  fac¬ 
tion,  took  the  name  of  Liberals,  and  the  Tories  (§  331),  who  found  their  old  name 
unpopular,  adopted  that  of  Conservatives. 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


395 


Local  Government  Act  did  for  the  counties.  It  gave  back 
to  them  certain  rights  which  they  once  possessed,  but  which 
had  been  usurped  by  the  squire,  the  parson,  and  a  few  privileged 
families. 

Now  every  man  and  woman  who  has  resided  in  the  parish  for 
a  twelvemonth  has  the  right,  not  only  to  vote  for  the  members  of 
the  Parish  Council,  but  to  run  as  candidate  for  election  to  that 
body.  This  village  parliament  discusses  all  questions  which  are 
of  public  interest  to  the  parish.  It  is  in  some  respects  more 
democratic  even  than  a  New  England  town-meeting,  since  it 
gives  women  a  voice,  a  vote,  and  opportunity  to  hold  office. 
Its  work  supplements  that  of  the  County  Council  and  the 
National  Parliament. 

648.  Overthrow  of  the  “Spoils  System”;  the  Army;  the 
“Secret  Ballot”  (1870-1872).  —  Meanwhile  reforms  not  less 
important  had  been  effected  in  the  management  of  the  civil 
service.  The  ancient  power  of  the  Crown  to  give  fat  pensions  to 
its  favorites  had  been  pared  down  to  the  most  modest  propor¬ 
tions,  but  another  great  abuse  still  flourished  like  an  evil  weed 
in  a  rich  soil. 

For  generations  public  offices  had  been  regarded  as  public 
plunder,  and  the  watchword  of  the  politicians  was,  “  Every  man 
for  himself,  and  the  National  Treasury  for  us  all.”  Under  this 
system  of  pillage  the  successful  party  in  an  election  came  down 
like  a  flock  of  vultures  after  a  battle.  They  secured  all  the 
“spoils,”  from  petty  clerkships  worth  /100  a  year  up  to  places 
worth  thousands. 

About  the  middle  of  the  century  (1855)  an  effort  was  made  to 
break  up  this  corrupt  and  corrupting  custom,  but  the  real  work 
was  not  accomplished  until  1870.  In  that  year  England  threw 
open  the  majority  of  the  positions  in  the  civil  service  to  competi¬ 
tive  examination.  Henceforth  the  poorest  day-laborer,  whether 
man  or  woman,  might,  if  competent,  ask  for  any  one  of  many 
places  which  formerly  some  political  “  boss  ”  reserved  as  gifts  for 
those  who  had  obeyed  his  commands. 

The  next  year  (1871)  the  purchase  of  commissions  in  the 


39^  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


army  was  abolished.1  This  established  the  merit  system  in 
the  ranks,  and  now  military  honors  and  military  offices  are  open 
to  all  who  can  earn  them. 

The  Registration  Act  (1843)  suppressed  election  frauds  to  a 
large  extent.  It  was  supplemented  (1872)  by  the  introduction 
of  the  “  secret  ballot  ”  (§  634).2  This  did  away  with  the  intimida¬ 
tion  of  voters  and  put  an  end  to  the  free  fights  and  riots  which 
had  so  frequently  made  the  polls  a  political  pandemonium. 

649.  Reforms  in  Law  Procedures  and  the  Administration  of 
Justice  ;  Treatment  of  the  Insane.  — Since  the  late  Queen’s  acces¬ 
sion  great  changes  for  the  better  have  been  effected  in  simplifying 
the  laws  and  in  the  administration  of  justice.  When  she  came  to 
the  throne  the  Parliamentary  Statutes  at  Large  filled  fifty-five 
huge  folio  volumes,  and  the  Common  Law,  as  contained  in 
judicial  decisions,  dating  from  the  time  of  Edward  II  (1307), 
filled  about  twelve  hundred  more.  The  work  of  examining, 
digesting,  and  consolidating  this  enormous  mass  of  legislative 
and  legal  lore  was  taken  in  hand  (1863)  and  has  been  happily 
progressing  ever  since. 

The  Judicature  Acts  (1873,  1877)  united  the  chief  courts 
in  a  single  High  Court  of  Justice.  This  reform  did  away  with 
much  confusion  and  expense.  But  the  most  striking  changes  for 
the  better  have  been  those  made  in  the  Court  of  Chancery 
(§  195)  and  the  criminal  courts. 

In  1825  the  property  belonging  to  suitors  in  the  former  court 
amounted  to  nearly  forty  millions  of  pounds.8  The  simplest  case 
required  a  dozen  years  for  its  settlement,  while  difficult  ones  con¬ 
sumed  a  lifetime,  or  more,  and  were  handed  down  from  father  to 
son,  —  a  legacy  of  baffled  hopes,  of  increasing  expense,  of  mental 
suffering  worse  than  that  of  hereditary  disease. 

Much  has  begn  done  to  remedy  these  evils,  which  Dickens  set 
forth  with  such  power  in  his  novel  of  “  Bleak  House.”  At  one 

1  Up  to  1871  an  officer  retiring  from  the  army  could  sell  his  commission  to  any 
officer  next  below  him  in  rank  who  had  the  money  to  buy  the  position ;  whereas 
under  the  present  system  the  vacancy  would  necessarily  fall  to  senior  officers  in  the 
line  of  promotion.  2  The  Bribery  Act  of  1883  was  another  important  measure. 

8  See  Walpole’s  History  of  England,  Vol.  III. 


1837-19°*]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


397 


time  they  seemed  so  utterly  hopeless  that  it  was  customary  for  a 
prize-fighter,  when  he  had  got  his  opponent’s  neck  twisted  under' 
his  arm,  and  held  him  absolutely  helpless,  to  declare  that  he  had 
his  head  “ in  chancery  ”  ! 

In  criminal  courts  an  equal  reform  has  taken  place,  and  men 
accused  of  burglary  and  murder  are  now  allowed  to  have  counsel 
to  defend  them ;  whereas,  up  to  the  era  of  the  coronation  of 
Victoria,  they  were  obliged  to  plead  their  own  cases  as  best 
they  might  against  skilled  public  prosecutors,  who  used  every 
resource  known  to  the  law  to  convict  them. 

Great  changes  for  the  better  have  also  taken  place  in  the  treat¬ 
ment  of  the  insane.  Until  near  the  close  of  the  last  century,  this 
unfortunate  class  was  quite  generally  regarded  as  possessed  by 
demons,  and  dealt  with  accordingly.  William  Tuke,  a  member 
of  the  Society  of  Friends,  inaugurated  a  better  system  (1792)  ; 
but  the  old  method  continued  for  many  years  longer.  In  fact, 
we  have  the  highest  authority  for  saying  that  down  to  a  late 
period  in  the  present  century  the  inmates  of  many  asylums  were 
worse  off  than  the  most  desperate  criminals. 

They  were  shut  up  in  dark,  and  often  filthy,  cells,  where  “  they 
were  chained  to  the  wall,  flogged,  starved,  and  not  infrequently 
killed.”  1  Since  then,  all  mechanical  restraints  have,  as  a  rule, 
been  abolished,  and  the  patients  are  generally  treated  with  the 
are  and  kindness  which  their  condition  demands. 


650.  Progress  in  the  Education  of  the  Masses;  the  Universi¬ 
ties;  Religious  Toleration. — Since  1837  the  advance  in  popular 
education  has  equalled  that  made  in  the  extension  of  suffrage  and 
in  civil-service  reform.  When  Victoria  began  her  reign  a  very 
large  proportion  of  the  children  of  the  poor  were  growing  up  in  a 
state  of  barbarism.  Practically  they  knew  little  more  of  books 
or  schools  than  the  young  Hottentots  of  South  Africa. 

The  marriage  register  shows  that  as  late  as  1840  forty  per  cent 
of  the  Queen’s  adult  subjects  could  not  write  their  names  in  the 
book;  by  the  close  of  her  reign  (1901)  the  number  who  had  to 
“  make  their  mark  ”  in  that  interesting  volume  was  only  about 


1  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  9th  ed.,  “  Insanity.” 


39§  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


one  in  ten.  This  proves,  as  Lord  Brougham  said,  that  “  the 
schoolmaster”  has  been  “abroad”  in  the  land. 

The  national  system  of  education  began,  1870,  with  the  open¬ 
ing  of  what  are  popularly  known  as  the  “  Board  Schools  ”  (§  641). 
Later,  the  Assisted  Education  Act  (1891)  made  provision  for 
those  who  had  not  means  to  pay  even  a  few  pence  a  week  for 
instruction.  This  law  puts  the  key  of  knowledge  within  reach  of 
every  child  in  England,  so  that  elementary  education  there  is 
now  as  free  to  the  poor  as  it  is  in  the  United  States. 

The  universities  have  felt  the  new  impulse.  The  abolition  of 
religious  tests  for  degrees  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  (1871)  threw 
open  the  doors  of  those  venerable  seats  of  learning  to  students  of 
every  faith  (§  641).  Since  then  colleges  for  women  have  been 
established  at  Oxford  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Cambridge,  and 
the  “university  extension”  examinations,  with  “college  settle¬ 
ments  ”  in  London  and  other  large  cities,  have  long  been  doing 
excellent  work. 

The  religious  toleration  granted  in  the  universities  was  in 
accord  with  the  general  movement  of  the  age.  It  will  be  remem¬ 
bered  that  the  Catholics  were  admitted  to  sit  in  Parliament 
(§  618)  late  in  the  reign  of  George  IV  (1829),  and  that  under 
Victoria  the  Jews  were  admitted  (1858)  to  the  same  right  (§  640). 
Finally,  Mr.  Bradlaugh  carried  his  “  Oaths  Bill  ”  through  Parlia¬ 
ment  (1888),  and  so  opened  the  National  Legislature  to  persons, 
not  only  of  all  religious  beliefs,  but  of  none. 

In  the  meantime  the  compulsory  payment  of  rates  for  the 
support  of  the  Church  of  England  had  been  abolished  (1868) 
(§  641)  ;  and  the  next  year  (1869)  was  made  memorable  by  the 
just  and  generous  act  by  which  Mr.  Gladstone  disestablished  the 
Irish  branch  of  the  English  Church  ($  641). 

651.  Transportation  and  Communication. — When  the  Queen 
ascended  the  throne,  the  locomotive  (§  627)  was  threatening  to 
supersede  the  stage  coach  ;  but  the  progress  of  steam  as  a  motor 
power  on  land  had  not  been  rapid,  and  England  then  had  less 
than  two  hundred  miles  of  railway  open ; 1  there  are  now  about 
1  A  part  of  what  is  now  the  London  and  Northwestern  Railway. 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


399 


twenty-two  thousand.  The  passenger  accommodation  was  lim¬ 
ited.  Those  who  could  indulge  in  such  luxuries  sometimes  pre¬ 
ferred  to  travel  in  their  own  private  carriages  placed  on  platform 
cars  for  transportation.  For  those  who  took  first-class  tickets 
there  were  excellent  and  roomy  compartments  at  very  high  prices. 
The  second-class  fared  tolerably  well,  but  the  unfortunate  third- 
class  were  crowded  like  cattle  into  open  trucks,  without  seats,  and 
with  no  roofs  to  keep  the  rain  out.  All  this  has  changed,  and 
the  workingman  can  now  fly  through  the  country  at  the  rate 
of  fifty  miles  an  hour,  for  a  penny  a  mile,  and  can  have  all  the 
comforts  that  a  reasonable  being  should  ask  for. 

Cheap  postage  (§  633)  came  in  (1840)  with  the  extension  of 
railways.  Every  letter,  for  the  first  time,  carried  on  it  a  stamp 
bearing  a  portrait  of  the  young  Queen,  and  in  this  way  the 
English  people  came  to  know  her  better  than  they  had  ever 
known  any  preceding  sovereign. 

Half  a  dozen  years  later  the  telegraph  made  instantaneous 
communication  possible.  The  Government  now  owns  all  the  lines, 
and  by  the  outlay  of  sixpence  one  can  send  a  brief  despatch  to 
any  part  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

652.  Light  in  Dark  Places  ;  Photography  ;  Ether  and  the  New 
Surgery  (1834-1847). — The  invention  of  the  friction  match 
(1834)  (§  627),  the  abolition  of  the  tax  on  windows  (1851) 
(§  637)>  with  the  introduction  of  American  petroleum,  speedily 
dispelled  the  almost  subterraneous  gloom  of  the  laborer’s  cottage. 
Meanwhile  photography  had  revealed  the  astonishing  fact  that 
the  sun  is  always  ready,  not  only  to  make  a  picture,  but  to  take 
one,  and  that  nothing  is  so  humble  as  to  be  beneath  his  notice. 

News  came  across  the  Atlantic  from  Boston  (1846)  that 
Dr.  Morton  had  rendered  surgery  painless  by  the  use  of  ether. 
Before  a  year  passed  the  English  hospitals  were  employing  the 
anaesthetic.  Sir  James  Y.  Simpson  introduced  chloroform  (1847). 
They  have  abolished  the  terror  of  the  surgeon’s  knife,  and  have 
lengthened  life  by  making  it  possible  to  perform  a  class  of 
operations  which  few  patients  had  been  able  to  bear. 

A  score  of  years  later  Sir  Joseph  Lister  called  attention  to 


400  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


antiseptic  methods  in  surgery.  They  have  suggested  precautions, 
formerly  unknown,  by  which  multitudes  of  lives  have  been  saved. 

653.  Progress  of  the  Laboring  Classes  ;  Free  Trade.  — At  the 
date  of  the  Queen’s  accession  an  enormous  mass  of  laws  existed 
restricting  trade  and  the  free  action  of  workingmen.  Only  three 
years  before  Victoria’s  coronation  six  poor  agricultural  laborers  in 
Dorsetshire  were  transported  (1834)  to  penal  servitude  at  Botany 
Bay,  Australia,  for  seven  years,  for  peacefully  combining  to  secure 
an  increase  of  their  miserable  wages  of  six  shillings  a  week.  In 
fact,  the  so-called  “  Conspiracy  Laws,”  which  made  labor  unions 
liable  to  prosecution,  were  not  wholly  repealed  until  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century  was  far  advanced. 

Then  (1871-1876)  the  Trades  Union  Acts  recognized  the 
right  of  workingmen  to  form  associations  to  protect  their  interests 
by  the  use  of  all  lawful  measures.1  Since  that  time  trades  unions 
have  gained  very  largely  in  numbers  and  financial  strength.  In 
many  ways,  in  connection  with  the  Cooperative  Societies  and 
Stores,  they  have  accomplished  great  good. 

They  will  accomplish  more  still  if  they  succeed  in  teaching  their 
members  to  study  the  condition  of  industry  in  England,  to  respect 
the  action  of  those  workers  who  do  not  join  associations,  and  to 
see  clearly  that  “  if  men  have  a  right  to  combine,”  they  must  also 
“  have  an  equal  right  to  refuse  to  combine.” 

In  1837  the  English  Corn  Laws  (§  635)  virtually  shut  out  the 
importation  of  grain  from  foreign  countries.  The  population  had 
outgrown  its  food  supply,  and  bread  was  so  dear  that  even  the 
agricultural  laborer  cried  out.  “  I  be  protected,”  said  he,  “  but 
I  be  starving.”  The  long  and  bitter  fight  against  the  Corn 
Laws  resulted  not  only  in  their  gradual  abolition  (1846),  but  in 
the  opening  of  English  ports  to  the  products  and  manufactures  of 
the  world.  With  the  exception  of  tobacco,  wines,  spirits,  and  a 
few  other  articles,  all  imports  enter  the  kingdom  free. 

But  though  Great  Britain  carries  out  Peel’s  theory,  —  that  it  is 

1  One  result  of  the  trades  unions  has  been  the  shortening  of  the  hours  of  labor. 
In  1894  the  Government  announced  an  eight -hour  day  for  workingmen  in  dockyards 
and  in  ordnance  factories. 


*  This  area  is  given  by  J.  Scott  Keltie  in  the  English  Illustrated  Magazine ,  July,  1897. 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


401 


better  to  make  things  cheap  for  the  sake  of  those  who  buy  them, 
rather  than  dear  for  the  sake  of  those  who  produce  them,  —  yet 
all  of  the  English  colonies,  with  the  exception  of  New  South 
Wales,  impose  protective  duties  even  against  British  products. 
One  of  the  interesting  questions  suggested  by  the  Queen’s 
“  Diamond  Jubilee  ”  (1897)  (§  646)  was  whether  England’s  chil¬ 
dren  in  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  Canada  would  take  any 
steps  toward  forming  a  commercial  free-trade  union  with  the 
mother-country. 

654.  The  Small  Agricultural  Holdings  Act ;  the  Agricultural 
Outlook.  — Through  the  influence  of  the  greatly  increased  popular 
vote,  which  resulted  from  the  Third  Reform  Act  (§  647),  the  farm 
laborers  made  themselves  felt  in  the  House  of  Commons.  They 
secured  the  passage  of  the  Small  Agricultural  Holdings  Act  (1892). 
This  gave  those  who  worked  on  the  land  the  privilege  of  pur¬ 
chasing  from  one  to  fifty  acres,  or  of  taking  it  on  lease  if  they 
preferred.1  But,  notwithstanding  the  relief  granted  by  this  meas¬ 
ure,  the  agricultural  problem  is  to-day  one  of  the  most  serious 
England  has  to  solve.  Just  as  New  England  now  depends  in 
>  large  measure  on  the  West  for  its  food  supply,  so  Great  Britain 
depends  on  America  for  breadstuffs.  Thousands  of  acres  of 
fertile  soil  have  gone  out  of  cultivation  in  the  eastern  half  of  the 
island,  partly  because  of  bad  harvests,  but  mainly  because  the 
farmers  cannot  compete  with  foreign  wheat. 

The  Royal  Agricultural  Commission  in  its  report  a  few  years 
ago  (1897)  could  suggest  no  remedy,  and  believed  matters  must 
grow  worse.  A  leading  English  journal,2  in  commenting  on  the 
!  report,  said,  “The  sad  and  sober  fact  is  that  the  English  farmer’s 
occupation  is  gone,  or  nearly  gone,  never  to  return.” 

The  depression  has  mined  many  tillers  of  the  soil,  and  has 
driven  the  rural  population  more  and  more  into  the  already 
overcrowded  towns.  There  they  bid  against  the  laboring  men 

1  The  Small  Agricultural  Holdings  Act  enables  the  County  Council  (§  640)  to 
acquire,  by  voluntary  arrangement,  suitable  land  for  the  purpose  of  reletting  or 
reselling  it  to  agricultural  laborers  and  men  of  small  means.  Under  certain  safe¬ 
guards  the  Council  may  advance  up  to  three-fourths  of  the  purchase  money. 

2  The  Bristol  Times  and  Mirror,  Aug.  5,  1897. 


402  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


for  work,  and  so  reduce  wages  to  the  lowest  point.  If  they  fail 
to  get  work,  they  become  an  added  burden  on  the  poor  rates, 
and  taxes  rise  accordingly. 

Should  no  remedy  be  found,  and  should  land  continue  to  go 
out  of  cultivation,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  majority  of  proprie¬ 
tors  can  resist  the  temptation  to  break  up  and  sell  their  estates. 
The  tendency  of  the  Consolidated  Death  Duties  Act  (1894)  is 
believed  by  many  to  work  in  the  same  direction.  It  imposes 
an  inheritance  tax  on  the  heirs  to  landed  property,  which  they 
find  it  hard  to  meet,  especially  when  their  tenants  have  abandoned 
their  farms  rather  than  try  to  pay  the  rent. 

To-day  a  few  thousand  wealthy  families  hold  the  title-deeds  to 
the  soil  on  which  more  than  thirty  millions  live.  Generally  speak¬ 
ing,  the  rent  they  demand  does  not  seem  to  be  excessive.1  It  is 
an  open  question  whether  England  would  be  the  gainer  if,  as  in 
France,  the  land  should  be  cut  up  into  small  holdings,  worked 
by  men  without  capital,  and  hence  without  power  to  make 
improvements. 

655.  The  Colonial  Expansion  of  England.  —  Meanwhile,  whether 
from  an  economic  point  of  view  England  is  gaining  or  losing 
at  home,  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  her  colonial  expansion. 
A  glance  at  the  accompanying  maps  of  the  world2  in  1837  and 
in  1897  shows  the  marvellous  territorial  growth  of  the  British 
Empire. 

When  Victoria  was  crowned  it  had  an  area  of  less  than  three 
million  square  miles ;  to-day  it  has  over  eleven  million  or  more 
than  one-fifth  of  the  entire  land  surface  of  the  globe.  This  shows 
that  England  added,  on  the  average,  more  than  one  hundred  and 
forty-five  -thousand  square  miles  of  territory  every  year  of  the  late 
Queen’s  reign. 

Australia  began  its  career  (1837)  as  a  penal  colony  with  a  few 
shiploads  of  convicts  ;  now  it  is  a  prosperous,  powerful,  and  loyal 
part  of  the  Empire  (§  594).  Sixty  years  ago  New  Zealand  was  a 

1  This  is  the  opinion  of  the  Royal  Commission;  but  Gibbins’  Industry  in  Eng¬ 
land  (1896),  page  441,  takes  the  opposite  view. 

?  See  Maps  Nos.  19  and  20,  facing  pages  400  and  402. 


837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


403 


mission-field  where  cannibalism  still  existed  ;  now  it  is  one  of  the 
leaders  in  English  civilization. 

Again,  when  Victoria  came  to  the  throne  (1837)  the  greater 
part  of  Africa  was  simply  a  geographical  expression  ;  the  coast 
had  been  explored,  but  most  of  the  interior  was  unknown. 
Through  the  efforts  of  Livingstone  and  those  who  followed  him 
(1840-1890),  the  interior  was  explored  and  the  source  of  the 
Nile  was  discovered  (1863).  Stanley  succeeded  in  his  great  work 
on  the  Congo  River,  and  the  “  dark  continent  ”  ceased  to  be 
dark.  Trade  was  opened  with  the  interior ;  the  discovery  of 
diamond  mines  and  gold  mines  in  South  Africa  (1867,  1884) 
stimulated  emigration.  Railroads  are  now  being  pushed  forward, 
new  markets  are  springing  up,  and  Africa,  once  the  puzzle  of  the 
world,  seems  destined  to  become  one  of  the  great  fields  which 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race  is  determined  to  control,  if  not  to  possess. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  British  West  Indies  have  of  late  years 
greatly  declined  from  their  former  prosperity.  The  English 
demand  for  cheap  sugar  has  encouraged  the  importation  of  beet¬ 
root  sugar  from  Germany  and  France.  This  has  reduced  the 
market  for  cane  sugar  to  so  low  a  point  that  there  is  little,  if  any, 
profit  in  raising  it  in  the  West  Indies.1 

656.  England’s  Change  of  Feeling  toward  her  Colonies;  Ireland; 
the  Policy  of  Justice;  Arbitration  vs.  War.  —  One  of  the  most 
striking  features  of  the  “  Diamond  Jubilee  ”  celebration  (§  646) 
was  the  prominence  given  to  the  Colonial  Prime  Ministers.  Less 
than  half  a  century  ago  the  men  who  governed  England  regarded 
Canada  and  Australia  as  “a  source  of  weakness,”  and  the  Colonial 
Office  in  London  knew  so  little  of  the  latter  country  that  it  made 
ridiculous  blunders  in  attempting  to  address  official  despatches 
to  Melbourne,  Australia.2  Even  as  late  as  1852  Disraeli,  then 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  wrote  to  Lord  Malmesbury  in 
regard  to  the  Newfoundland  fisheries,  “These  wretched  colonies 
will  all  be  independent,  too,  in  a  few  years,  and  are  a  millstone 
around  our  necks.” 

1  See  Brooks  Adams’  America’s  Economic  Supremacy. 

2  Traill’s  Social  England,  VI,  684. 


404  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


Twenty  years  afterward  Disraeli,  later  Lord  Beaconsfield, 
declared  that  one  of  the  great  objects  he  and  his  party  had  in 
view  was  to  uphold  the  British  Empire  and  to  do  everything 
to  maintain  its  unity.  That  feeling  has  steadily  gained  in 
power  and  was  never  stronger  than  it  is  to-day.  If  the  colo¬ 
nies  respond  by  actions  as  well  as  words,  “  Imperial  Federation” 
will  soon  become  something  more  than  a  high-sounding  phrase. 

But  to  make  such  federation  harmonious  and  complete  the 
support  of  Ireland  must  be  obtained.  That  country  is  the  only 
member  of  the  United  Kingdom  whose  representatives  in  Par¬ 
liament  refused,  as  a  rule,  to  take  part  in  the  celebration  of 
the  Queen’s  reign.  They  felt  that  their  island  had  never  been 
placed  on  a  true  equality  with  its  stronger  and  more  prosperous 
neighbor. 

In  fact,  the  Royal  Commission,  appointed  to  inquire  into 
the  relative  taxation  of  England  and  Ireland,  reported  (1897) 
nearly  unanimously  that  “  for  a  great  many  years  Ireland  had 
paid  annually  more  than  £ 2,000,000  beyond  her  just  propor¬ 
tion  of  taxation.”  1  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  total  excess 
thus  extorted  during  the  Queen’s  reign  amounts  to  nearly 

1 00,000,000. 

In  1893  Mr.  Gladstone  made  a  vigorous  effort  to  secure 
“  Home  Rule  ”  for  Ireland.  His  bill  granting  that  country  an 
independent  Parliament  passed  the  House  of  Commons  by  a  very 
large  majority,  but  was  utterly  defeated  by  the  Lords.  In  1898 
Mr.  Balfour  succeeded  in  passing  a  bill  which  gave  Ireland  local 
government  on  the  same  popular  foundation  on  which  it  rests  in 
England  (§  647)  and  Scotland. 

The  recognition  of  the  principle  of  international  arbitration  by 
England  in  the  Alabama  case  (§  639),  in  the  Behring  Sea  Seal 
Fisheries  dispute  (1893),  and  in  the  Venezuela  boundary  contro¬ 
versy  (1896),  shows  that  the  English  people  see  that  the  victories 
of  peace  are  worth  as  much  to  a  nation  as  the  victories  of  war. 
The  Hague  Peace  Conference  Treaty,  ratified  by  Great  Britain 
(1899),  provided  for  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  Court  of 
.  1  McCarthy’s  History  of  Our  Own  Times,  V,  487. 


u 

gl 

GLADSTONE  SPEAKING  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS  (on  his  Introduction 
of  the  Home  Rule  Bill  for  Ireland,  Feb.  13,  1893) 


837-190*]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


405 


Arbitration  between  the  leading  nations  of  Europe,  the  United 
States,  China,  and  Japan. 

Sixty  years  ago  such  a  court  would  have  been  thought  to  be 
impossible  ;  to-day  it  has  the  support  of  the  ablest  men  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  It  is  a  pity  that  it  could  not  have  exercised 
its  influence  to  prevent  the  terrible  South  African  war.  But,  none 
the  less,  it  holds  forth  promise  of  good  in  the  future. 

657.  Death  of  Gladstone ;  the  Cabot  Tower ;  Centennial  of  the 
First  Savings-Bank.  —  Meanwhile,  Mr.  Gladstone  died  full  of  years 
and  honors  at  his  residence,  Hawarden  Castle,1  North  Wales  (189  8). 
The  “  Grand  Old  Man  ”  — as  his  friends  delighted  to  call  him  — 
was  buried  in  that  Abbey  at  Westminster  which  holds  so  much  of 
England’s  most  precious  dust.  His  grave  is  not  far  from  the  memo¬ 
rial  to  Lord  Beaconsfield,  his  lifelong  rival  and  political  opponent. 

In  the  autumn  (1898)  the  Cabot  monument  was  opened  at 
Bristol.  It  is  a  commanding  tower,  overlooking  the  ancient  city 
and  port  from  which  John  Cabot  (§  387)  sailed  in  the  spring  of 
1497.  The  monument  commemorates  Cabot’s  discovery  of  the 
mainland  of  the  new  world.  An  inscription  on  one  of  the  walls 
of  the  tower  expresses  “the  earnest  hope  that  Peace  and  Friend¬ 
ship  may  ever  continue  between  the  kindred  peoples”  of  England 
and  America. 

In  May  of  the  next  year  (1899)  the  one  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  establishment  of  savings-banks  in  Great  Britain  was  cele¬ 
brated.  Near  the  closing  year  of  the  eighteenth  century  (1799), 
Rev.  Joseph  Smith,  Vicar  of  Wendover  in  Buckinghamshire,  in¬ 
vited  the  laborers  of  his  parish  to  deposit  their  savings  with  him 
on  interest. 

“Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,”  said  he,  quoting  St.  Paul’s 
injunction,  “  let  every  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store.”  2  He 
offered  to  receive  sums  as  small  as  twopence.  Before  the  end  of 
the  year  he  had  sixty  depositors.  Eventually  the  Government 
took  up  the  scheme  and  established  the  present  system  of  national 
savings-banks. 

'  Hawarden  (Har'den). 

2  The  quotation  is  from  I  Corinthians,  xvi,  2. 


406  leading  facts  of  English  history  [1837-1901 


They  have  done  and  are  doing  incalculable  good.  To-day  there 
are  nearly  nine  million  depositors  in  the  United  Kingdom.  Most 
of  them  belong  to  the  wage-earning  class,  and  they  hold  not  far 
from  £ 200,000,000 .  In  this  case  certainly  the  grain  of  mustard 
seed,  sown  a  century  ago,  has  produced  a  mighty  harvest. 

658.  England  in  Egypt ;  Gordon  ;  Omdurman ;  Progress  in 
Africa.  —  Meanwhile,  the  English  had  been  busy  outside  of  their 
island.  Five  years  after  the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal  (1869), 
Lord  Beaconsfield,1  then  Prime  Minister,  bought  nearly  half  of 
the  canal  property  from  the  Governor  of  Egypt.  From  that  time 
England  kept  her  hand  on  the  country  of  the  Pharaohs  and  the 
pyramids. 

About  ten  years  later  (1881)  Arabi  Pasha,2  an  ambitious 
colonel  in  the  native  army,  raised  the  cry,  “  Down  with  all 
foreigners  —  Egypt  for  the  Egyptians  !  ”  Lord  Wolseley 3  defeated 
Arabi’s  forces,  and  he  was  banished  from  the  country. 

Two  years  afterward  (1883)  a  still  more  formidable  rebellion 
broke  out  in  the  Soudan,  —  a  province  held  by  Egypt.  The 
leader  of  the  insurrection  styled  himself  the  Mahdi,4  or  great 
Mohammedan  Prophet.  Then  (1884)  Gladstone  sent  General 
Gordon,  commonly  called  “  Chinese  Gordon,”  5  to  withdraw  the 
Egyptian  troops  from  Khartoum,  the  capital  of  the  Soudan.  The 
Mahdi’s  forces  shut  up  the  heroic  soldier  in  that  city,  and  before 
help  could  reach  him  he  and  all  his  Egyptian  troops  were  mas¬ 
sacred.  No  braver  or  truer  man  ever  died  at  the  post  of  duty, 
for  in  him  was  fulfilled  Wordsworth’s  eloquent  tribute  to  the 
“  Happy  Warrior.”  6 

Lord  Kitchener  advanced  (1896)  against  Omdurman,  the 
headquarters  of  the  new  Mahdi.  In  a  decisive  victory  (1898) 
he  scattered  the  fanatical  Dervishes,  or  Mohammedan  monks, 
like  chaff  before  a  whirlwind.  He  then  took  possession  of 

1  Beaconsfield  (Bek'ons-field).  2  Arabi  Pasha  (A-ra'bee  Pah-shaw'). 

3  Wolseley  (Wools'ly).  4  Mahdi  (Mah'dee). 

5  So  called  because  of  his  military  career  in  China  (1862),  where  as  com¬ 
mander  of  the  “  Ever-Victorious  Army,”  and  supported  by  the  Chinese  Government, 
he  suppressed  the  formidable  Tai-Ping  rebellion. 

3  See  Wordsworth’s  Poems,  “  The  Happy  Warrior.” 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


407 


Khartoum  (opposite  Omdurman)  and  held  religious  services 
on  the  spot  where  Gordon  fell,  —  now  marked  by  a  Memorial 
College.  The  next  autumn  (1899)  the  British  overtook  the 
fugitive  leader  of  the  Dervishes  and  annihilated  his  army.1 

British  enterprise,  British  capital,  and  American  inventive  skill 
are  transforming  Egypt.  When  the  new  dam  across  the  Nile  is 
completed,  the  water  supply  can  be  regulated  in  large  measure. 
The  creation  of  this  enormous  reservoir  promises  to  make 
the  Nile  Valley  one  of  the  richest  cotton-producing  regions  in 
the  world. 

The  “  Cape  to  Cairo  ”  railway,  which  is  nearly  half  finished, 
is  another  undertaking  of  immense  importance.  When  ready 
for  traffic,  through  its  whole  length  of  over  fifty-six  hundred 
miles,  it  will  open  all  Eastern  Africa,  from  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  to  the  Mediterranean,  to  the  spread  of  commerce  and 
civilization. 

/  659.  The  Boer  Republics  ;  the  Boer  War  ;  Death  of  the  Queen; 
King  Edward  VII  (1901).  — The  history  of  the  British  in  South 
Africa  has  been  even  more  tragic  than  their  progress  in  Egypt. 

In  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  (1652)  the  Dutch 
took  possession  of  Cape  Colony.  Many  Boers,2  or  Dutch  farmers, 
and  cattle  raisers  emigrated  to  that  far-distant  land.  There  they 
were  joined  by  Huguenots3  driven  out  of  France.  All  of  them 
became  slaveholders.  Early  in  the  nineteenth  century  (1814) 
England  purchased  the  Cape  from  Holland.  Twenty  years  later 
the  English  Parliament  bought  all  the  negroes  held  by  the  Boers 
and  set  them  free. 

Eight  thousand  Boers,  disgusted  with  the  loss  of  their  slaves 
and  with  the  small  price  they  had  received  for  them,  left  the 
Cape  (1836)  and  pushed  far  northward  into  the  wilderness. 
Crossing  the  Orange  River,  they  founded  the  “Orange  Free 
State.”  Another  party  of  Boers,  going  still  further  north,  crossed 
the  Vaal  River  (a  tributary  of  the  Orange)  and  set  up  the 

1  See  Map  No.  21,  facing  page  406.  2  Boers  (Boors). 

8  Huguenots  (Hue'ge-nots) :  French  Protestants  who  fled  from  France  to  escape 
the  persecution  of  Louis  XIV.  See  Montgomery’s  Leading  Facts  of  French  History. 


408  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1837-1901 


Transvaal,1  or  “South  African  Republic,”  on  what  was  practically 
a  slaveholding  foundation.  Later  (1852)  England,  by  a  treaty 
known  as  the  Sand  River  Convention,  virtually  recognized  the 
independence  of  the  settlers  in  the  Transvaal,  and  two  years  after¬ 
ward  made  a  still  more  explicit  recognition  of  the  independence 
of  the  Orange  Free  State. 

The  Zulus 2  and  other  fierce  native  tribes  bordering  on  the 
Transvaal  hated  the  Boers  and  threatened  to  “eat”  them  up. 
Later  (1877),  England  thought  it  for  her  interest,  and  for  that  of 
the  Boers  as  well,  to  annex  the  Transvaal.  The  English  Governor 
did  not  grant  the  Boers  the  measure  of  political  liberty  which  he 
had  promised  ;  this  led  to  a  revolt,  and  a  small  body  of  English 
soldiers  were  beaten  at  Majuba  Hill  (1881). 

Gladstone  did  not  think  that  the  conquest  of  the  Transvaal, 
supposing  it  to  be  justifiable,  would  pay  for  its  cost,  and  he 
accordingly  made  a  treaty  with  the  people  of  that  country  (1881). 
Beaconsfield  thought  this  policy  a  serious  mistake,  and  that  it 
would  lead  to  trouble  later  on.  He  said,  “  We  have  failed  to 
whip  the  boy,  and  we  shall  have  to  fight  the  man.”  The  Glad¬ 
stone  Treaty  acknowledged  the  right  of  the  Boers  to  govern  them¬ 
selves,  but  subject  to  English  control.  Three  years  later  (1884) 
that  treaty  was  modified.  The  Boers  declared  that  the  English 
then  gave  up  all  control  over  them,  except  with  regard  to  the  power 
to  make  treaties  which  might  conflict  with  the  interests  of  Great 
Britain.  But  this  the  English  Government  emphatically  denied.3 

The  discovery  of  diamond  fields  in  Cape  Colony  (1867)  and 
of  the  richest  gold  mines  in  the  world  (1884)  in  the  Transvaal 
stimulated  a  great  emigration  of  English  to  South  Africa.  In  a 
few  years  the  “  Outlanders  ”  —  as  the  Boers  call  all  foreigners  — 

1  Transvaal  (Trans-vahl').  2  Zulus  (Zoo'looze). 

3  The  preamble  of  the  Convention  or  agreement  made  in  1S81  at  Pretoria,  the 
capital  of  the  Transvaal,  secured  to  the  Boers  “  complete  self-government,  subject  to 
the  suzerainty  of  Her  Majesty,”  Queen  Victoria.  In  the  Convention  of  1884,  made 
at  London,  the  word  “suzerainty”  was  dropped;  but  Mr.  Chamberlain,  Colonial 
Secretary  of  Great  Britain,  contended  that  it  was  implied  or  understood.  This 
interpretation  of  the  agreement  President  Kruger  of  the  South  African  Republic 
absolutely  rejected. 


1837-1901]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


409 


outnumbered  the  Boers  themselves.  The  “  Outlanders,”  who 
worked  the  gold  mines  and  paid  nearly  all  the  taxes,  complained 
that  the  laws  made  by  the  Boers  were  unjust  and  oppressive. 
They  demanded  the  right  to  vote.  The  Boers,  on  the  other 
hand,  refused  to  give  the  “Outlanders”  the  right,  except  under 
arduous  restrictions,  lest  the  foreigners  should  get  the  upper  hand 
in  the  Transvaal  Republic,  and  then  lhanage  it  to  suit  themselves. 

Things  went  on  from  bad  to  worse.  At  length  (1895)  Dr. 
Jameson,  a  prominent  Englishman  of  Cape  Colony,  armed  a  small 
body  of  “  Outlanders,”  who  undertook  to  get  by  force  what  they 
could  not  get  by  persuasion. 

The  Boers  captured  the  Revolutionists  and  compelled  some 
of  the  leaders  to  pay,  in  all,  about  a  million  of  dollars  in  fines. 
Jameson  was  sent  to  England,  there  tried,  and  imprisoned  for 
a  short  time.  A  committee  appointed  by  Parliament  investigated 
the  invasion  of  the  Transvaal  and  charged  the  Hon.  Cecil  J. 
Rhodes,  then  Prime  Minister  of  Cape  Colony,  with  having  helped 
on  the  raid. 

From  this  time  the  feeling  of  hatred  between  the  Boers  and 
the  “Outlanders”  grew  more  and  more  intense.  Finally  the 
smouldering  fires  burst  into  flame,  and  the  Transvaal  and  England 
resolved  to  fight. 

War  began  in  the  autumn  of  1899,  the  Orange  Free  State 
uniting  with  the  Transvaal  against  Great  Britain.1  The  Boers 
took  up  arms  for  independence.  The  English  forces  under  Lord 
Roberts  began  fighting,  first  in  behalf  of  the  “  Outlanders,”  next  to 
keep  the  British  Empire  together,  and,  finally,  to  extend  English 
law,  liberty,  and  civilization  as  they  understand  them. 

Mr.  Chamberlain,  the  Colonial  Secretary  of  Great  Britain,  said 
a  few  years  ago  that  a  war  in  South  Africa  would  be  “a  long  war, 
a  bitter  war,  and  a  costly  war.”  Events  have  proved  the  truth 
of  part  of  his  prediction.  The  contest  has  certainly  been 
“  bitter,”  for  it  has  carried  sorrow  and  death  into  many  thousand 
homes.  It  has  been  “costly,”  too,  for  the  expense  to  England  is 
estimated,  thus  far,  at  upwards  of  j£  100,000,000. 

1  See  Map  No.  21,  facing  page  406. 


4io 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1901-] 


England  has  overthrown  and  formally  annexed  (1900)  the  two 
Boer  republics,  aggregating  over  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven 
thousand  square  miles.  But  to  accomplish  that  work  she  was 
forced  to  send  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  to  South 
Africa,  —  the  largest  army  she  ever  put  into  the  field  in  the  whole 
course  of  her  history.  The  great  majority  of  the  English  people 
believed  that  the  war  was  inevitable.  But  there  has  been  an 
active  minority  who  have  not  hesitated  to  condemn  the  “Jingo” 
policy 1  of  the  Government  as  disastrous  to  the  best  interests  of 
the  country.  In  the  midst  of  the  discussion  Queen  Victoria  died 
(Jan.  22,  1901).  Grief  and  anxiety  caused  by  the  war  probably 
hastened  her  end.  The  Prince  of  Wales  succeeded  to  the  crown 
under  the  title  of  King  Edward  VII. 

660.  The  Condition  of  the  Mass  of  the  English  People  To-day. 
—  Since  the  accession  of  Victoria  the  condition  of  the  great  body 
of  the  English  people  has  immensely  improved.  We  no  longer 
hear  of  workingmen  and  women  stifling  the  pangs  of  hunger  by 
the  habitual  use  of  opium,  as  thousands  did  at  the  beginning  of 
the  reign.2  Wages  have  risen,  and  hours  of  labor  have  been  short¬ 
ened.  On  the  other  hand,  England  no  longer  enjoys  the  absolute 
commercial  supremacy  she  once  boasted ; 3  for  in  the  production 

1  The  nickname  of  “Jingo  Party”  or  “Jingoism”  originated  during  Beacons- 
field’s  ministry  (1874-1880).  He  adopted  the  policy  of  extending  the  power  of 
England  at  the  expense  of  petty  wars  in  South  Africa  and  in  Afghanistan,  and  he 
even  threatened  Russia. 

A  popular  music-hall  song  glorified  Beaconsfield’s  aggressive  attitude  by 
declaring :  — 

“  We  don’t  want  to  fight,  but  by  Jingo,  if  we  do, 

We ’ve  got  the  ships,  we ’ve  got  the  men, 

We ’ve  got  the  money,  too.” 

2  Ward’s  Reign  of  Queen  Victoria,  II,  51. 

3  England’s  Loss  of  Commercial  Supremacy.  — In  1865  Professor  Jevonsof  Eng¬ 
land  predicted  that  the  enormous  output  of  coal  and  iron  in  the  British  Isles  could 
not  continue  another  century  without  such  an  enhancement  in  cost  as  would  make 
it  practically  impossible  for  Great  Britain  to  compete  with  the  United  States  in  the 
production  of  crude  iron.  The  Right  Honorable  Leonard  H.  Courtney,  in  an  address 
(1897)  read  before  the  Royal  Statistical  Society  of  London,  showed  that  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  pig  iron  in  the  United  States  exceeded  that  of  England  in  the  ratio  of  6  to  5, 
while  the  American  production  of  steel  was  double  that  of  England,  which  now  im¬ 
ports,  that  metal  to  a  considerable  extent  from  us.  The  United  States  now  disputes 


MEDALLION  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 
(1837-1901) 


[ 1 90 1 -]  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE  41  I 

of  iron  and  steel  (which  rank  at  the  head  of  all  manufactures), 
she  has  fallen  far  behind  the  United  States  ;  but  she  still  remains 
one  of  the  greatest  industrial  nations  of  the  world. 

Not  only  has  the  average  wealth  of  the  country  greatly  in¬ 
creased,  but  deposits  in  savings-banks  (§  657)  prove  that  the 
workingmen  are  laying  away  large  sums  which  were  formerly 
spent  in  drink.  Statistics  show  that  pauperism,  drunkenness,  and 
crime  have  materially  diminished. 

On  the  other  hand,  free  libraries,  reading-rooms,  and  art  gal¬ 
leries  have  been  opened  in  all  the  large  towns.  Liverpool  is  no 
longer  “  that  black  spot  on  the  Mersey  ”  which  its  cellar  popula¬ 
tion  of  forty  thousand  and  its  hideous  slums,  with  a  population  of 
nearly  seventy  thousand  more,  once  made  it. 

Sanitary  regulations,  with  house-to-house  inspection,  have  done 
away  with  filth  and  disease,  which  were  formerly  accepted  as  a 
matter  of  course,  and  new  safeguards  now  protect  the  health  and 
life  of  classes  of  the  population  who  were  once  simply  miserable 
outcasts. 

Hospitals  and  charitable  associations,  with  bands  of  trained 
nurses,  provide  for  the  sick  and  suffering  poor.  Prison  discipline 
has  ceased  to  be  the  terrible  thing  it  was  when  Charles  Reade 
wrote  “  Never  too  Late  to  Mend,”  and  the  convict  in  his  cell  no 
longer  feels  that  he  is  utterly  helpless  and  friendless. 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  best  men  and  the  best 
minds  in  England,  without  distinction  of  rank  or  class,  are  now 
laboring  for  the  advancement  of  the  people.  They  see,  what  has 
never  been  so  clearly  seen  before,  that  the  nation  is  a  unit,  that 
the  welfare  of  each  depends  ultimately  on  the  welfare  of  all,  and 
that  the  higher  a  man  stands,  and  the  greater  his  wealth  and 
privileges,  so  much  the  more  is  he  bound  to  extend  a  helping 
hand  to  those  less  favored  than  himself. 

The  Socialists  demand  the  abolition  of  private  property  in  land 


England’s  exports  of  all  kinds  of  iron  and  steel  to  neutral  markets,  and  there  are 
indications  that  America  may  soon  outrival  her  in  various  other  manufactured 
exports.  Meanwhile,  Americans  are  sending  locomotives  and  rails  to  South  Africa 
and  other  English  colonies,  and  in  some  cases  even  to  England  herself. 


412 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1901-] 


and  the  nationalizing,  not  only  of  the  soil,  but  of  all  mines,  rail¬ 
ways,  water-works,  and  docks  in  the  kingdom.  Thus  far,  how¬ 
ever,  they  have  shown  no  disposition  to  attain  their  objects 
by  violent  action.  England,  by  nature  conservative,  is  slow  to 
break  the  bond  of  historic  continuity  which  connects  her  present 
with  her  past. 

“Do  you  think  we  shall  ever  have  a  second  revolution?”  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  was  once  asked.  “  We  may,”  answered  the 
great  general,  “  but  if  we  do,  it  will  come  by  act  of  Parliament.” 
That  reply  probably  expresses  the  general  temper  of  the  people, 
who  believe  that  they  can  gain  by  the  ballot  more  than  they  can 
by  an  appeal  to  force,  knowing  that  theirs  is 


A  land  of  settled  government, 

A  land  of  just  and  old  renown, 

Where  freedom  broadens  slowly  down. 
From  precedent  to  precedent.”1 


661.  General  Summary  of  the  Rise  of  the  English  People  from 
the  Earliest  Period  to  the  Present  Time.  —  Such  is  the  condition 
of  England  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  and  at 
the  accession  of  King  Edward  VIE  If  we  pause  now  and  look 
back  to  the  time  when  the  island  of  Britain  first  became  inhabited, 
we  shall  see  the  successive  steps  which  have  transformed  a  few 
thousand  barbarians  into  a  great  and  powerful  empire.2 

1.  Judging  from  the  remains  of  their  flint  implements  and 
weapons  (§§  8-12),  we  have  every  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
original  population  of  Britain  was  in  no  respect  superior  to  the 
American  Indians  that  Columbus  found  in  the  new  world.  They 
had  the  equality  which  everywhere  prevails  among  savages,  where 
all  are  alike  ignorant,  alike  poor,  and  alike  miserable.  The  tribal 
unity  which  bound  them  together  in  hostile  clans  resembled  that 
found  among  a  pack  of  wolves  or  a  herd  of  buffalo,  —  it  was 
instinctive  rather  than  intelligent,  and  sprang  from  necessity 
rather  than  from  independent  choice.  Gradually  these  tribes 
learned  to  make  tools  and  weapons  of  bronze  (§  18),  and  to  some 


1  Tennyson’s  You  Ask  Me  Why. 

2  See  Map  No.  20  (British  Empire  in  1901),  facing  page  402. 


[  1 901—] 


GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


413 


extent  even  of  iron  ;  then  they  ceased  the  wandering  life  of  men 
who  live  by  hunting  and  fishing,  and  began  to  cultivate  the  soil, 
raise  herds  of  cattle,  and  live  in  rudely  fortified  towns. 

Such  was  their  condition  when  Caesar  invaded  the  island  (§  43), 
and  when  the  power  of  Roman  armies  and  Roman  civilization 
reduced  the  aborigines  to  a  state  but  little  better  than  that  of  the 
most  abject  slavery  (§  60).  When,  after  several  centuries  of 
occupation,  the  Roman  power  was  withdrawn,  we  find  that  the 
race  they  had  subjugated  had  gained  nothing  from  their  con¬ 
querors,  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  they  had  lost  much  of  their 
native  courage  and  manhood  (§§  66,  67). 

2.  With  the  Saxon  invasion  the  true  history  of  the  country 
may  be  said  to  begin  (§§  69,  70).  The  fierce  blue-eyed  German 
race,  living  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  and  of  the  North  Sea, 
brought  with  them  a  love  of  liberty  and  a  power  to  defend  it 
which  even  the  Romans  in  their  continental  campaigns  had 
not  been  able  to  subdue.  They  laid  the  foundations  of  a  new 
nation ;  their  speech,  their  laws,  their  customs,  became  perma¬ 
nent,  and  by  them  the  Britain  of  the  Celts  and  the  Romans  was 
baptized  with  that  name  of  England  which  it  has  ever  since 
retained  (§  89). 

3.  Five  hundred  years  later  came  the  Norman  Conquest 
(§  146).  By  it  the  Saxons  were  temporarily  brought  into 
subjection  to  a  people  who,  though  they  spoke  a  different  lan¬ 
guage,  sprang  originally  from  the  same  Germanic  stock  as 
themselves. 

This  conquest  introduced  higher  elements  of  civilization,  the 
life  of  England  was  to  a  certain  extent  united  with  the  broader 
and  more  cultivated  life  of  the  continent,  and  the  feudal  or  mili¬ 
tary  tenure  of  the  land,  which  had  begun  among  the  Saxons, 
was  fully  organized  and  developed.  At  the  same  time  the  king 
became  the  real  head  of  the  government,  which  before  was 
practically  in  the  hands  of  the  nobles,  who  threatened  to  split 
it  up  into  a  self-destructive  anarchy  (§  172). 

The  most  striking  feature  of  this  period  was  the  fact  that 
political  liberty  depended  wholly  on  possession  of  the  soil. 


414 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1901-] 


The  landless  man  was  a  slave  or  a  serf ;  in  either  case,  so  far  as 
the  state  was  concerned,  his  rank  was  simply  zero  (§  200). 
Above  him  there  was,  properly  speaking,  no  English  people ; 
that  is,  no  great  body  of  inhabitants  united  by  common  descent, 
by  participation  in  the  government,  by  common  interests,  by  pride 
of  nationality  and  love  of  country. 

On  the  contrary,  there  were  only  classes  separated  by  strongly 
marked  lines,  —  ranks  of  clergy,  or  ranks  of  nobles,  with  their 
dependents.  Those  who  owned  and  ruled  the  country  were 
Normans,  speaking  a  different  tongue  from  the  English,  and 
looking  upon  them  with  that  contempt  with  which  the  victor 
regards  the  vanquished,  while  the  English,  only  half  conquered, 
returned  the  feeling  with  sullen  hate. 

4.  The  rise  of  the  people  was  obscure  and  gradual.  It  began 
in  the  conflicts  between  the  barons  and  the  Crown  (§  224).  In 
those  contests  both  parties  needed  the  help  of  the  working 
classes.  To  get  it  each  side  made  haste  to  grant  some  privilege 
to  those  whose  assistance  they  required. 

Next,  the  foreign  wars  had  no  small  influence,  since  friendly 
relations  naturally  sprang  up  between  those  who  fought  side  by 
side,  and  the  Saxon  yeoman  and  the  Norman  knight  henceforth 
felt  that  England  was  their  common  home,  and  that  in  her  cause 
they  must  forget  differences  of  rank  and  blood  (§  244). 

It  was,  however,  in  the  provisions  of  the  Great  Charter  that  the 
people  first  gained  legal  recognition  (§  251).  When  the  barons 
forced  King  John  to  issue  that  document,  they  found  it  expe¬ 
dient  to  protect  the  rights  of  all.  For  that  reason,  the  great 
nobles  and  the  clergy  made  common  cause  with  peasants, 
tradesmen,  and  serfs. 

Finally,  the  rise  of  the  free  cities  (§  234)  secured  to  their 
inhabitants  many  of  the  privileges  of  self-government,  while  the 
Wat  Tyler  insurrection  of  a  later  period  (§  302)  led  eventually 
to  the-  emancipation  of  that  numerous  class  which  was  bound  to 
the  soil. 

3.  But  the  real  unity  of  the  people  first  showed  itself  unmis¬ 
takably  in  consequence  of  a  new  system  of  taxation,  levied  on 


[1901-] 


GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


415 


persons  of  small  property  as  well  as  on  the  wealthy  landholders. 
The  moment  the  Government  laid  hands  on  the  tradesman’s  and 
the  laborer’s  pockets,  they  demanded  to  have  a  share  in  legisla¬ 
tion  (§§  265-269).  Out  of  that  demand  sprang  the  House  of 
Commons,  a  body,  as  its  name  implies,  made  up  of  representa¬ 
tives  chosen  mainly  from  the  people  and  by  the  people. 

The  great  contest  now  was  for  the  power  to  levy  taxes  :  if 
the  king  could  do  it,  he  might  take  the  subject’s  money  when  he 
pleased  ;  if  Parliament  alone  had  the  control  in  this  matter,  then 
it  would  be  as  they  pleased.  Little  by  little  not  only  did  Parlia¬ 
ment  obtain  the  coveted  power,  but  that  part  of  Parliament  which 
directly  represented  the  people  got  it,  and  it  was  finally  settled 
that  no  tax  could  be  demanded  save  by  their  vote  (§§  272,  295). 

This  victory,  however,  was  not  gained  except  by  a  long  and 
bitter  conflict,  in  which  sometimes  one  and  sometimes  the  other 
of  the  contestants  got  the  best  of  it,  and  in  which  also  Jack  Cade’s 
insurrection  in  behalf  of  free  elections  had  its  full  influence 
(§  35°)- 

But  though  temporarily  beaten,  the  people  never  quite  gave  up 
the  struggle.  “  The  murmuring  Parliament  of  Mary  became  the 
grumbling  Parliament  of  Elizabeth,  and  finally  the  rebellious  and 
victorious  Parliament  of  Charles  I.”  Then  the  executioner’s  axe 
settled  the  question  of  who  was  to  rule,  and  the  people  set  up  a 
short-lived  but  vigorous  republic. 

6.  Meanwhile,  a  great  change  had  taken  place  in  the  condition 
of  the  aristocracy.  The  Wars  of  the  Roses  (§§  351,  368)  had 
destroyed  the  power  of  the  Norman  barons,  and  the  Tudors  — 
especially  Henry  VIII,  by  his  action  in  suppressing  the  monas¬ 
teries,  and  granting  the  lands  to  his  favorites  —  virtually  created 
a  new  aristocracy,  many  of  whom  sprang  from  the  ranks  of  the 
people  (§  404). 

binder  Cromwell,  a  republic  was  nominally  established,  and  the 
House  of  Lords  temporarily  abolished  ;  but  all  power  was  really 
in  the  hands  of  the  army,  with  the  Protector  at  its  head  (§§  502- 
507).  After  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy  (1660)  (§  519),  the 
government  of  the  country  was  carried  on  mainly  by  the  two  great 


416  leading  facts  of  English  history  [1901-] 

political  parties,  the  Whigs  and  the  Tories  (§  531),  representing 
the  Cavaliers  and  Roundheads,  or  the  aristocratic  and  people’s 
parties  of  the  civil  war. 

With  the  flight  of  James  II,  the  passage  of  the  Bill  of  Rights 
and  the  Act  of  Settlement  (§  549),  Parliament  set  aside  the 
regular  hereditary  order  of  succession  and  established  a  new 
order,  in  which  the  sovereign  was  made  dependent  on  the 
people  for  his  right  to  rule.  Next,  the  Mutiny  Act  (§  548)  put 
the  power  of  the  army  practically  into  the  hands  of  Parliament, 
which  already  held  full  control  of  the  purse. 

The  Toleration  Act  (§  548)  granted  liberty  of  worship,  and 
the  abolition  of  the  censorship  of  the  press  gave  freedom  to 
expression  (§  550).  With  the  coming  in  of  George  I,  the  king 
ceased  to  appoint  his  Cabinet,  leaving  its  formation  to  his  Prime 
Minister  (§  583).  Hereafter  the  Cabinet  no  longer  met  with  the 
king,  and  the  executive  functions  of  the  Government  were  con¬ 
ducted,  to  a  constantly  increasing  extent,  without  his  taking  any 
active  part  in  them. 

Still,  though  the  people  through  Parliament  claimed  to  rule, 
yet  the  great  landholders,  and  especially  the  Whig  nobility,  held 
the  chief  power ;  the  sovereign,  it  is  true,  no  longer  tried  to 
govern  in  spite  of  Parliament,  but  by  controlling  elections  and 
legislation  he  managed  to  govern  through  it. 

7.  With  the  invention  of  the  steam  engine,  and  the  growth  of 
great  manufacturing  towns  in  the  central  and  northern  counties 
of  England,  many  thousands  of  the  population  were  left  without 
representation  (§  623).  Their  demands  to  have  this  inequality 
righted  resulted  in  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832  (§  624),  which  broke 
up  in  great  measure  the  political  monopoly  hitherto  enjoyed 
by  the  landholders  and  aristocracy,  and  distributed  the  power 
among  the  middle  classes. 

The  accession  of  Queen  Victoria  established  the  principle  that 
the  Cabinet  should  be  held  directly  responsible  to  the  majority  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  that  they  should  not  be  appointed 
contrary  to  the  wish,  or  dismissed  contrary  to  the  consent,  of  that 
majority  (§  630). 


[  1 90 1  — ] 


GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE 


417 


> 


By  the  Reform  Bills  of  1867  and  1884,  the  suffrage  was  greatly 
extended  (§  640),  so  that,  practically,  the  centre  of  political  gravity 
which  was  formerly  among  the  wealthy  and  privileged  classes,  and 
which  passed  from  them  to  the  manufacturing  and  mercantile  popu¬ 
lation,  has  shifted  to  the  working  classes,  who  now  possess  the 
balance  of  power  in  England  almost  as  completely  as  they  do  in 
America.  Thus  we  see  that  by  gradual  steps  those  who  once  had 
few  or  no  rights  have  come  to  be  the  masters ;  and  though  Eng¬ 
land  continues  to  be  a  monarchy  in  name,  yet  she  is  well-nigh  a 
republic  in  fact. 

In  feudal  times  the  motto  of  knighthood  was  Noblesse  oblige, 
—  or,  nobility  of  rank  demands  nobility  of  character.  To-day 
the  motto  of  every  free  nation  should  be,  Liberty  is  Respon¬ 
sibility,  for  henceforth  both  in  England  and  America  the  people 
who  govern  are  bound,  by  their  own  history  and  their  own 
declared  principles,  to  use  their  opportunities  to  govern  well. 

The  danger  of  the  past  lay  in  the  tyranny  of  the  minority,  that 
of  the  present  is  in  the  tyranny  of  the  majority.  The  great 
problem  of  our  time  is  to  learn  how  to  reconcile  the  interests  of 
each  with  the  welfare  of  all.  To  do  that,  whether  on  an  island 
or  on  a  continent,  in  England  or  in  America,  is  to  build  up  the 
kingdom  of  justice  and  good  will  upon  the  earth. 

662.  Characteristics  of  English  History;  the  Unity  of  the 
English-Speaking  Race;  Conclusion. — This  rapid  and  imperfect 
sketch  shows  what  has  been  accomplished  by  the  people  of 
Britain.  Other  European  peoples  may  have  developed  earlier, 
and  made  perhaps  more  rapid  advances  in  certain  forms  of  civili¬ 
zation,  but  none  have  surpassed,  nay,  none  have  equalled,  the 
English-speaking  race  in  the  practical  character  and  permanence 
of  their  progress. 

Guizot  says 1  the  true  order  of  national  development  in  free 
government  is,  first,  to  convert  the  natural  liberties  of  man  into 
clearly  defined  political  rights  ;  and,  next,  to  guarantee  the  secu¬ 
rity  of  those  rights  by  the  establishment  of  forces  capable  of 
maintaining  them. 


1  Guizot’s  History  of  Representative  Government,  Lecture  VI. 


418 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1901-] 


Nowhere  do  we  find  better  illustrations  of  this  law  of  progress 
than  in  the  history  of  England,  and  of  the  colonies  which  England 
has  planted.  Eor  the  fact  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized  that 
in  European  history  England  stands  as  the  leader  in  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  constitutional  government  (§§  251,  549).  Trial  by  jury 
(§227),  the  legal  right  to  resist  oppression  (§  313),  legislative 
representation  (§  265),  religious  freedom  (§548,  and  note  2),  the 
freedom  of  the  press  (§  550),  and,  finally,  the  principle  that  all 
political  power  is  a  trust  held  for  the  public  good,1  —  these  are  the 
assured  results  of  Anglo-Saxon  growth,  and  the  legitimate  heritage 
of  every  nation  of  Anglo-Saxon  descent. 

Here,  in  America,  we  sometimes  lose  sight  of  what  those  have 
done  for  us  who  occupied  the  world  before  we  came  into  it.  We 
forget  that  English  history  is  in  a  very  large  degree  our  history,  and 
that  England  is,  as  Hawthorne  liked  to  call  it,  “  our  old  home.” 

In  fact,  if  we  go  back  less  than  three  centuries,  the  record  of 
America  becomes  one  with  that  of  the  mother-country,  which  first 
discovered  (§§  387,  473)  and  first  permanently  settled  this,  and 
which  gave  us  for  leaders  and  educators  Washington,  Franklin, 
the  Adamses,  and  John  Harvard.  In  descent,  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  11s  are  of  English  blood  ; 2  while  in  language,  literature, 
law,  legislative  forms  of  government,  and  the  essential  features  of 
civilization,  we  all  owe  to  England  a  greater  debt  than  to  any 
other  country  ;  and  without  a  knowledge  of  her  history  we  cannot 
rightly  understand  our  own. 

Standing  on  her  soil  we  possess  practically  the  same  personal 
rights  that  we  do  here  ;  we  speak  the  same  tongue,  we  meet  with 
the  same  familiar  names.  We  feel  that  whatever  is  glorious  in 
her  past  is  ours  also ;  that  Westminster  Abbey  belongs  as  much 

1  See  Macaulay’s  Essay  on  Walpole. 

2  In  1840  the  population  of  the  United  States,  in  round  numbers,  was  seventeen 
millions,  of  whom  the  greater  part  were  probably  of  English  descent.  Since  then 
there  has  been  an  enormous  immigration,  forty  per  cent  of  which  was  from  the  British 
Islands  ;  but  it  is  perhaps  safe  to  say  that  three-quarters  of  our  present  population  are 
those  who  were  living  here  in  1840,  with  their  descendants.  Of  the  immigrants  coming 
from  non-English-speaking  races,  the  Germans  predominate,  and  it  is  to  them,  as  we 
have  seen,  that  the  English  owe  their  origin,  they  being  in  fact  but  a  modification  of 
the  Teutonic  race. 


[  1 90 1  — ] 


GOVERNMENT  BY  TIIE  PEOPLE 


419 


to  us  as  to  her,  for  our  ancestors  helped  to  build  its  walls,  and 
their  dust  is  gathered  in  its  tombs ;  that  Shakespeare  and  Milton 
belong  to  us  in  like  manner,  for  they  wrote  in  the  language  we 
speak,  for  the  instruction  and  delight  of  our  fathers’  fathers,  who 
beat  back  the  Spanish  Armada,  and  gave  their  lives  for  liberty  on 
the  fields  of  Marston  Moor  and  Naseby. 

Let  it  be  granted  that  grave  issues  have  arisen  in  the  past  to 
separate  us ;  yet,  after  all,  our  interests  and  our  sympathies,  like 
our  national  histories,  have  more  in  common  than  they  have 
apart.  The  progress  of  each  country  now  reacts  for  good  on  the 
other.1 

If  we  consider  the  total  combined  population  of  the  United 
States  and  of  the  British  Empire,  we  find  that  to-day  upwards  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of  people  speak  the  English 
tongue,  and  are  governed  by  the  fundamental  principles  of  Eng¬ 
lish  constitutional  law.  They  hold  possession  of  nearly  twelve 
millions  of  square  miles  of  the  earth’s  surface,  —  an  area  nearly 
equal  to  the  united  continents  of  North  America  and  Europe. 
By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  globe 
is  theirs. 

They  have  expanded  by  their  territorial  and  colonial  growth  as 
no  other  people  have.  They  have  absorbed  and  assimilated  the 
millions  of  emigrants  from  every  race  and  of  every  tongue  which 
have  poured  into  their  dominions. 

The  result  is,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  Islands,  of 
Australia,  New  Zealand,  the  United  States,  and  Canada,  practically 
form  one  great  Anglo-Saxon  race,  diverse  in  origin,  separated  by 


1  In  this  connection  the  testimony  of  Captain  Alfred  T.  Mahan,  in  his  recent 
work,  The  Problem  of  Asia,  is  worth  quoting  here.  He  says  (p.  187),  speaking  of 
our  late  war  with  Spain :  “  The  writer  has  been  assured,  by  an  authority  in  which 
he  entirely  trusts,  that  to  a  proposition  made  to  Great  Britain  to  enter  into  a  com¬ 
bination  to  constrain  the  use  of  our  [United  States]  power,  —  as  Japan  was  five 
years  ago  constrained  by  the  joint  action  of  Russia,  France,  and  Germany,  —  the 
reply  [of  Great  Britain]  was  not  only  a  passive  refusal  to  enter  into  such  a  combina¬ 
tion  [against  the  United  States],  but  an  assurance  of  active  resistance  to  it  if 
attempted.  .  .  .  Call  such  an  attitude  [on  the  part  of  England  toward  the  United 
States]  friendship,  or  policy,  as  you  will,  —  the  name  is  immaterial;  the  fact  is  the 
essential  thing  and  will  endure,  because  it  rests  upon  solid  interests.” 


420  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  [1901-] 

distance,  but  everywhere  exhibiting  the  same  spirit  of  intelligent 
enterprise  and  of  steady,  resistless  growth.  Thus  considered, 
America  and  England  are  necessary  one  to  the  other.  Their 
interests  now  and  in  the  future  are  essentially  the  same. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  let  us  say,  with  an  eminent  thinker,1 
whose  intellectual  home  is  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  “What¬ 
ever  there  be  between  the  two  nations  to  forget  and  forgive,  is 
forgotten  and  forgiven.  If  the  two  peoples,  which  are  one,  be 
true  to  their  duty,  who  can  doubt  that  the  destinies  of  the  world 
are  in  their  hands?”  * 


1  Archdeacon  Farrar,  Address  on  General  Grant,  Westminster  Abbey,  1885. 


GENERAL  SUMMARY  OF  ENGLISH  CONSTITU¬ 
TIONAL  HISTORY1 


1.  Origin  and  Primitive  Government  of  the  English  People.  — 

The  main  body  of  the  English  people  did  not  originate  in  Britain,  but 
in  Northwestern  Germany.  The  Jutes,  Saxons,  and  Angles  were  inde¬ 
pendent,  kindred  tribes  living  on  the  banks  of  the  Elbe  and  its  vicinity. 

They  had  no  written  laws,  but  obeyed  time-honored  customs  which 
had  all  the  force  of  laws.  All  matters  of  public  importance  were 
decided  by  each  tribe  at  meetings  held  in  the  open  air.  There  every 
freeman  had  an  equal  voice  in  the  decision.  There  the  people  chose 
their  rulers  and  military  leaders  ;  they  discussed  questions  of  peace 
and  war  ;  finally,  acting  as  a  high  court  of  justice,  they  tried  criminals 
and  settled  disputes  about  property. 

In  these  rude  methods  we  see  the  beginning  of  the  English  Consti¬ 
tution.  Its  growth  has  been  the  slow  work  of  centuries,  but  the  great 
principles  underlying  it  have  never  changed.  At  every  stage  of  their 
progress  the  English  people  and  their  descendants  throughout  the 
globe  have  claimed  the  right  of  self-government ;  and,  if  we  except 
the  period  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  whenever  that  right  has  been 
persistently  withheld  or  denied  the  people  have  risen  in  arms  and 
regained  it. 

2.  Conquest  of  Britain;  Origin  and  Power  oUthe  King.  —  After 
the  Romans  abandoned  Britain  the  English  invaded  the  island,  and 
in  the  course  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  (449-600)  conquered  it 
and  established  a  number  of  rival  settlements.  The  native  Britons 
were,  in  great  part,  killed  off  or  driven  to  take  refuge  in  Wales  and 
Cornwall. 

The  conquerors  brought  to  their  new  home  the  methods  of  gov¬ 
ernment  and  modes  of  life  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed  in 
Germany.  A  cluster  of  towns  —  that  is,  a  small  number  of  enclosed 
habitations  (§  139)  —  formed  a  hundred  (a  district  having  either  a 
hundred  families  or  able  to  furnish  a  hundred  warriors)  ;  a  cluster  of 
hundreds  formed  a  shire  or  county.  Each  of  these  divisions  had  its 
public  meeting,  composed  of  all  its  freemen  or  their  representatives, 
for  the  management  of  its  own  affairs.  But  a  state  of  war  —  for  the 
English  tribes  fought  each  other  as  well  as  fought  the  Britons  — ■  made 

1  This  Summary  is  inserted  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  desire  a  compact,  connected  view 
of  the  development  of  the  English  Constitution,  such  as  may  be  conveniently  used  either  for 
reference,  for  a  general  review  of  the  subject,  or  for  purposes  of  special  study.  —  D.  H.  M. 

For  authorities,  see  Stubbs  (449-1485);  Hallam  (1485-1760);  May  (1760-1870);  Amos 
(1870-1880);  see  also  Hansard  and  Cobbett’s  Parliamentary  History,  the  works  of  Freeman, 
Taswell-Langmead  (the  best  one-volume  Constitutional  History),  Feilden  (as  a  convenient 
reference-book  this  manual  has  no  equal),  and  Ransome,  in  the  List  of  Books. 

The  references  inserted  in  parentheses  are  to  sections  in  the  body  of  the  history. 


11 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


a  strong  central  government  necessary.  For  this  reason  the  leader 
of  each  tribe  was  made  king.  At  first  he  was  chosen,  at  large,  by 
the  entire  tribe  ;  later,  unless  there  was  some  good  reason  for  a  differ¬ 
ent  choice,  the  King’s  eldest  son  was  selected  as  his  successor.  Thus 
the  right  to  rule  was  practically  fixed  in  the  line  of  a  certain  family 
descent. 

The  ruler  of  each  of  these  petty  kingdoms  was  (i)  the  commander- 
in-chief  in  war :  (2)  he  was  the  supreme  judge. 

3.  The  Witenagemot,  or  General  Council. —  In  all  other  respects 
the  King's  authority  was  limited —  except  when  he  was  strong  enough 
to  get  his  own  way —  by  the  Witenagemot,  or  General  Council.  This 
body  consisted  of  the  chief  men  of  each  kingdom  acting  in  behalf 
of  its  people.1  It  exercised  the  following  powers:  1.  It  elected 
the  King,  and  if  the  people  confirmed  the  choice,  he  was  crowned. 
2.  If  the  King  proved  unsatisfactory,  the  Council  might  depose  him 
and  choose  a  successor.  3.  The  King,  with  the  consent  of  the  Coun¬ 
cil,  made  the  law's, —  that  is,  he  declared  the  customs  of  the  tribe. 
4.  The  King,  with  the  Council,  appointed  the  chief  officers  of  the 
kingdom  (after  the  introduction  of  Christianity  this  included  the 
bishops)  ;  but  the  King  alone  appointed  the  sheriff,  to  represent  him, 
and  collect  the  revenue  in  each  shire.  5.  The  Council  confirmed  or 
denied  grants  of  portions  of  the  public  lands  made  by  the  King  to 
private  persons.  6.  The  Council  acted  as  the  high  court  of  justice, 
the  King  sitting  as  supreme  judge.  7.  The  Council,  with  the  King, 
discussed  all  cpiestions  of  importance,  —  such  as  the  levying  of  taxes, 
the  making  of  treaties  ;  smaller  matters  were  left  to  the  towns,  hun¬ 
dreds,  and  shires  to  settle  for  themselves.  After  the  consolidation  of 
the  different  English  kingdoms  into  one,  the  Witenagemot  expanded 
into  the  National  Council.  In  it  we  see  “  the  true  beginning  of  the 
Parliament  of  England.” 

4.  How  England  became  a  United  Kingdom ;  Influence  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  Danish  Invasions.  —  For  a  number  of  centuries 
Britain  consisted  of  a  number  of  little  rival  kingdoms,  almost  con¬ 
stantly  at  war  with  each  other.  Meanwhile  missionaries  from  Rome 
had  introduced  Christianity  (597).  Through  the  influence  of  Theodore 
of  Tarsus,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (668),  the  clergy  of  the  different 
hostile  kingdoms  met  in  general  church  councils.2  This  religious  unity 
of  action  preoared  the  way  for  political  unity.  The  Catholic  Church  — 
the  only  Christian  Church  (except  the  Greek  Church)  then  existing  — 
made  men  feel  that  their  highest  interests  were  one  ;  it  “  created  the 
nation.” 

This  was  the  first  cause  of  the  union  of  the  kingdoms.  The  second 

1  The  Witenagemot  (i.e.,  the  Meeting  of  the  Witan,  or  Witan,  or  Wist®Men,  §  ti6),  says 
Stubbs  (Select  Charters),  represented  the  people,  although  it  was  not  a  collection  of  repre¬ 
sentatives. 

2  This  movement  began  several  years  earlier  (see  §  85),  but  Theodore  of  Tarsus  was 
its  first  great  organizer. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


ill 


was  the  invasion  of  the  Danes.  These  fierce  marauders  forced  the 
people  south  of  the  Thames  to  join  in  common  defence,  under  the  leader¬ 
ship  of  Alfred,  King  of  the  West  Saxons.  By  the  Treaty  of  Wedmore 
(878),  the  Danes  were  compelled  to  give  up  Southwestern  England,  but 
they  retained  the  whole  of  the  Northeast.  About  the  middle  of  the 
tenth  century,  one  of  Alfred’s  grandsons  conquered  the  Danes,  and 
took  the  title  of  “  King  of  all  England.”  1  Later,  the  Danes,  reinforced 
by  fresh  invasions  of  their  countrymen,  made  themselves  masters  of  the 
land;  yet  Canute,  the  most  powerful  of  these  Danish  kings,  ruled 
according  to  English  methods.  At  length  the  great  body  of  the  people 
united  in  choosing  Edward  the  Confessor  king  (1042-1066).  He  was 
English  by  birth,  but  Norman  by  education.  Under  him  the  unity  of 
the  English  kingdom  was,  in  name  at  least,  fully  restored. 

5.  Beginning  of  the  Feudal  System;  its  Results.  —  Meantime 
a  great  change  had  taken  place  in  England  with  respect  to  holding 
land.  We  shall  see  clearly  to  what  that  change  was  tending  if  we 
look  at  the  condition  of  France.  There  a  system  of  government  and 
of  land  tenure  existed  known  as  the  Feudal  System  (§  200).  Under  it 
the  King  was  regarded  as  the  owner  of  the  entire  realm.  He  granted, 
with  his  royal  protection,  the  use  of  portions  of  the  land  to  his  chief 
men  or  nobles,  with  the  privilege  of  building  castles  and  of  establish¬ 
ing  private  courts  of  justice  on  these  estates.  Such  grants  were  made 
on  two  conditions  :  (1)  that  the  tenants  should  take  part  in  the  King’s 
Council ;  (2)  that  they  should  do  military  service  in  the  King’s  behalf, 
and  furnish  besides  a  certain  number  of  fully  armed  horsemen  in 
proportion  to  the  amount  of  land  they  had  received.  So  long  as 
they  fulfilled  these  conditions  —  made  under  oath  —  they  could  retain 
their  estates,  and  hand  them  down  to  their  children  ;  but  if  thev  failed 
to  keep  their  oath,  they  forfeited  the  land  to  the  King. 

These  great  military  barons  or  lords  let  out  parts  of  their  immense 
manors,2  or  estates,  on  similar  conditions,  —  namely,  (1)  that  their 
vassals  or  tenants  should  pay  rent  to  them  by  doing  military  or  other 
service  ;  and  (2)  that  they  should  agree  that  all  questions  concerning  their 
rights  and  duties  should  be  tried  in  the  lord’s  private  court.3  On  the 
other  hand,  the  lord  of  the  manor  pledged  himself  to  protect  his  vassals. 

On  every  manor  there  were  usually  three  classes  of  these  tenants  : 
(1)  those  who  discharged  their  rent  by  doing  military  duty  ;  (2)  those 


1  Some  authorities  consider  Edgar  (959)  as  the  first  “  King  of  all  England.*’  In  828 
Egbert,  King  of  the  West  Saxons,  once,  though  but  once,  took  the  lesser  title  of  “  King  of 
the  English.”  See  §  88. 

2  Manor  (man  or):  see  plan  of  a  manor  (Old  French  ma7ioir ,  a  mansion),  facing  page  80, 

the  estate  of  a  feudal  lord.  Every  manor  had  two  courts.  The  most  important  of  these  was 
the  “  court  baron .”  It  was  composed  of  all  the  free  tenants  of  the  manor,  with  the  lord  (or 
his  representative)  presiding.  It  dealt  with  civil  cases  only.  The  second  court  was  the 
“  court  customary ,”  which  dealt  with  cases  connected  with  villeinage.  The  manors  held  by 
the  greater  barons  had  a  third  court,  the  “  court  leet ,”  which  dealt  with  criminal  cases,  and 
could  inflict  the  death  penalty.  In  all  cases  the  decisions  of  the  manorial  courts  would  be 
pretty  sure  to  be  in  the  lord's  favor.  In  England,  however,  these  courts  never  acquired  the 
degree  of  power  which  they  did  on  the  continent.  3  See  note  above,  on  the  manor. 


IV 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


who  paid  by  a  certain  fixed  amount  of  labor  —  or,  if  -they  preferred, 
in  produce  or  in  money  ;  (3)  the  villeins,  or  common  laborers,  who 
were  bound  to  remain  on  the  estate  and  work  for  the  lord,  and  whose 
condition,  although  they  were  not  wholly  destitute  of  legal  rights,  was 
practically  not  very  much  above  that  of  slaves  (§  160). 

But  there  was  another  way  by  which  men  might  enter  the  Feudal 
System  ;  for  while  it  was  growing  up  there  were  many  small  free  land¬ 
holders,  who  owned  their  farms,  and  owed  no  man  any  service  what¬ 
ever.  In  those  times  of  constant  civil  war  such  men  would  be  in  almost 
daily  peril  of  losing,  not  only  their  property,  but  their  lives.  To  escape 
this  danger,  they  would  hasten  to  “  commend  ”  themselves  to  some 
powerful  neighboring  lord.  To  do  this,  they  pledged  themselves  to 
become  “  his  men,”  surrendered  their  farms  to  him,  and  received  them 
again  as  feudal  vassals.  That  is,  the  lord  bound  himself  to  protect 
them  against  their  enemies,  and  they  bound  themselves  to  do  “suit 
and  service”1  like  the  other  tenants  of  the  manor  ;  for  '■'■suit  and 
service  ”  on  the  o>ie  side,  and  “  protection  ”  on  the  other ,  made  up 
the  threefold  foundation  of  the  Feudal  System. 

Thus  in  time  all  classes  of  society  became  bound  together.  At 
the  top  stood  the  King,  who  was  no  man’s  tenant,  but,  in  name  at 
least,  every  man’s  master  ;  at  the  bottom  crouched  the  villein,  who 
was  no  man’s  master,  but  was,  in  fact,  the  most  servile  and  helpless 
of  tenants. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  things  in  France.  In  England,  how¬ 
ever,  this  system  of  land  tenure  was  never  completely  established 
until  after  the  Norman  Conquest  (1066).  For  in  England  the  tie 
which  bound  men  to  the  King  and  to  each  other  was  originally  one 
of  pure  choice,  and  had  nothing  directly  to  do  with  land.  Gradually, 
however,  this  changed ;  and  by  the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor 
land  in  England  had  come  to  be  held  on  conditions  so  closely  resem¬ 
bling  those  of  France  that  one  step  more — and  that  a  very  short 
one  —  would  have  made  England  a  kingdom  exhibiting  all  the  most 
dangerous  features  of  French  feudalism. 

For,  notwithstanding  certain  advantages,- feudalism  had  this  great 
evil  :  that  the  chief  nobles  often  became  in  time  more  powerful  than 
the  King.  This  danger  now  menaced  England.  For  convenience 
Canute  the  Dane  had  divided  the  realm  into  four  earldoms.  The 
holders  of  these  vast  estates  had  grown  so  mighty  that  they  scorned 
royal  authority.  Edward  the  Confessor  did  not  dare  resist  them. 
The  ambition  of  each  earl  was  to  get  the  supreme  mastery.  This 
threatened  to  bring  on  civil  war,  and  to  split  the  kingdom  into 
fragments.  Fortunately  for  the  welfare  of  the  nation,  William  of 
Normandy,  by  his  invasion  and  conquest  of  England  (1066),  put  an 
effectual  stop  to  the  selfish  schemes  of  these  four  rival  nobles. 

1  That  is,  they  pledged  themselves  to  do  suit  in  the  lord’s  private  court,  and  to  do  service 
in  his  army.  2  On  the  Advantages  of  Feudalism,  see  §  123. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


V 


6.  William  the  Conqueror  and  his  Work.  —  After  William’s  vic¬ 
tory  at  Hastings  and  march  on  London,  the  National  Council  chose 
him  sovereign,  —  they  would  not  have  dared  to  refuse,  —  and  he  was 
crowned  by  the  Archbishop  of  York  in  Westminster  Abbey.  This 
coronation  made  him  the  legal  successor  of  the  line  of  English 
kings.  In  form,  therefore,  there  was  no  break  in  the  order  of  gov¬ 
ernment  ;  for  though  William  had  forced  himself  upon  the  throne, 
he  had  done  so  according  to  law  and  custom,  and  not  directly  by  the 
sword. 

Great  changes  followed  the  conquest,  but  they  were  not  violent. 
The  King  abolished  the  four  great  earldoms  (§  107),  and  restored 
national  unity.  He  gradually  dispossessed  the  chief  English  land¬ 
holders  of  their  lands,  and  bestowed  them,  under  strict  feudal  laws, 
on  his  Norman  followers.  He  likewise  gave  all  the  highest  posi¬ 
tions  in  the  Church  to  Norman  bishops  and  abbots.  The  National 
Council  now  changed  its  character.  It  became  simply  a  body  of 
Norman  barons,  who  were  bound  by  feudal  custom  to  meet  with  the 
King.  But  they  did  not  restrain  his  authority  ;  for  William  would 
brook  no  interference  with  his  will  from  any  one,  not  even  from 
the  Pope  himself  (§  166). 

But  though  the  Conqueror  had  a  tyrant’s  power,  he  rarely  used  it 
like  a  tyrant.  We  have  seen1  that  the  great  excellence  of  the  early 
English  government  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  towns,  hundreds,  and 
shires  were  self-governing  in  all  local  matters  ;  the  drawback  to  this 
system  was  its  lack  of  unity  and  of  a  strong  central  power  that  could 
make  itself  respected  and  obeyed.  William  supplied  this  power,  - — - 
without  which  there  could  be  no  true  national  strength,  —  yet  at  the 
same  time  he  was  careful  to  encourage  the  local  system  of  self- 
government.  He  gave  London  a  liberal  charter  to  protect  its  rights 
and  liberties  (§  1 54).  He  began  the  organization  of  a  royal  court  of 
justice  ;  he  checked  the  rapacious  Norman  barons  in  their  efforts  to 
get  control  of  the  people’s  courts. 

Furthermore,  side  by  side  with  the  feudal  cavalry  army,  he  main¬ 
tained  the  old  English  county  militia  of  foot-soldiers,  in  which  every 
freeman  was  bound  to  serve.  He  used  this  militia,  when  necessary, 
to  prevent  the  barons  from  getting  the  upper  hand,  and  so  destroying 
those  liberties  which  were  protected  by  the  Crown  as  its  own  best 
safeguard  against  the  plots  of  the  nobles. 

Next,  William  had  a  census,  survey,  and  valuation  made  of  all  the 
estates  in  the  kingdom  outside  London  which  were  worth  examina¬ 
tion.  The  result -of  this  great  work  was  recorded  in  Domesday 
Book  (§  169).  By  means  of  that  book  —  still  preserved  —  the  King 
knew  what  no  English  ruler  had  known  before  him  ;  that  was,  the 
property-holding  population  and  resources  of  the  kingdom,  Thus  a 


1  See  §§  2,  3  of  this  Summary. 


VI 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


solid  foundation  was  laid  on  which  to  establish  the  feudal  revenue 
and  the  military  power  of  the  Crown. 

Finally,  just  before  his  death,  the  Conqueror  completed  the  organi¬ 
zation  of  his  government.  Hitherto  the  vassals  of  the  great  barons 
had  been  bound  to  them  alone.  They  were  sworn  to  fight  for  their 
masters,  even  if  those  masters  rose  in  open  rebellion  against  the 
sovereign.  William  changed  all  that.  At  a  meeting  held  at  Salisbury 
( 1 086)  he  compelled  every  landholder  in  England,  from  the  greatest 
to  the  smallest,  —  sixty  thousand,  it  is  said,  — to  swear  to  be  “faith¬ 
ful  to  him  against  all  others  ”  (§§  170,  1  7 1 ).  By  that  oath  he  “broke 
the  neck  of  the  Feudal  System  ”  as  a  form  of  government,  though 
he  retained  and  developed  the  principle  of  feudal  land  tenure.  Thus 
at  one  stroke  he  made  the  Crown  the  supreme  power  in  England  ; 
had  he  not  done  so,  the  nation  would  soon  have  fallen  a  prey  to 
civil  war. 

7.  William’s  Norman  Successors.  —  William  Rufus  has  a  bad 
name  in  history,  and  he  fully  deserves  it.  But  he  had  this  merit : 
he  held  the  Norman  barons  in  check  with  a  stiff  hand,  and  so,  in 
one  way,  gave  the  country  comparative  peace. 

His  successor,  Henry  I,  granted  (rioo)  a  charter  of  liberties 
(§  185,  note  1)  to  his  people,  by  which  he  recognized  the  sacred¬ 
ness  of  the  old  English  laws  for  the  protection  of  life  and  property. 
Somewhat  more  than  a  century  later  this  document  became,  as  we 
shall  see,  the  basis  of  the  most  celebrated  charter  known  in  English 
history.  Henry  attempted  important  reforms  in  the  administration 
of  the  laws,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  that  system  which  his  grand¬ 
son,  Henry  II,  was  to  develop  and  establish.  By  these  measures 
he  gained  the  title  of  the  “Lion  of  Justice,”  who  “made  peace  for 
both  man  and  beast.”  Furthermore,  in  an  important  controversy 
with  the  Pope  respecting  the  appointment  of  bishops  (§  186),  Henry 
obtained  the  right  (1107)  to  require  that  both  bishops  and  abbots, 
after  taking  possession  of  their  church  estates,  should  be  obliged 
like  the  barons  to  furnish  troops  for  the  defence  of  the  kingdom. 

But  in  the  next  reign  —  that  of  Stephen  —  the  barons  got  the 
upper  hand,  and  the  King  was  powerless  to  control  them.  They 
built  castles  without  royal  license,  and  from  these  private  fortresses 
they  sallied  forth  to  ravage,  rob,  and  murder  in  all  directions.  Had 
that  period  of  terror  continued  much  longer,  England  would  have 
been  torn  to  pieces  by  a  multitude  of  greedy  tyrants. 

8.  Reforms  of  Henry  II ;  Scutage ;  Assize  of  Clarendon ;  Juries ; 
Constitutions  of  Clarendon.  —  With  Henry  II  the  true  reign  of 
law  begins.  To  carry  out  the  reforms  begun  by  his  grandfather, 
Henry  I,  the  King  fought  both  barons  and  clergy.  Over  the  first 
he  won  a  complete  and  final  victory  ;  over  the  second  he  gained  a 
partial  one. 

Henry  began  his  work  by  pulling  down  the  unlicensed  castles 


I 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY  vii 

built  by  the  “robber  barons”  in  Stephen’s  reign.  But,  according 
to  feudal  usage,  the  King  was  dependent  on  these  very  barons  for 
his  cavalry,  —  his  chief  armed  force.  He  resolved  to  make  himself 
independent  of  their  reluctant  aid.  To  do  this  he  offered  to  release 
them  from  military  service,  providing  they  would  pay  a  tax,  called 
“  scutage,”  or  “  shield-money  ”  (i  1 59) -1  The  barons  gladly  accepted 
the  offer.  With  the  money  Henry  was  able  to  hire  “mercenaries,” 
or  foreign  troops,  to  fight  for  him  abroad,  and,  if  need  be,  in  England 
as  well.  Thus  he  struck  a  great  blow  at  the  power  of  the  barons, 
since  they,  through  disuse  of  arms,  grew  weaker,  while  the  King 
grew  steadily  stronger.  To  complete  the  work,  Henry,  many  years 
later  ( 1 1 8 1 ),  reorganized  the  old  English  national  militia,2  and  made 
it  thoroughly  effective  for  the  defence  of  the  royal  authority.  For 
just  a  hundred  years  (1074-1174)  the  barons  had  been  trying  to 
overthrow  the  government  ;  under  Henry  II  the  long  struggle  came 
to  an  end,  and  the  royal  power  triumphed. 

But  in  getting  the  military  control  of  the  kingdom,  Henry  had  won 
only  half  of  the  victory  he  was  seeking  ;  to  complete  his  supremacy 
over  the  powerful  nobles,  the  king  must  obtain  control  of  the  adminis¬ 
tration  of  justice. 

In  order  to  do  this  more  effectually,  Henry  issued  the  Assize  of 
Clarendon  (1 166).  It  was  the  first  true  national  code  of  law  ever  put 
forth  by  an  English  king,  since  previous  codes  had  been  little  more 
than  summaries  of  old  “  customs.”  The  realm  had  already  been 
divided  into  six  circuits,  having  three  judges  for  each  circuit.  The 
Assize  of  Clarendon  gave  these  judges  power  not  only  to  enter  and 
preside  over  every  county  court,  but  also  over  every  court  held  by  a 
baron  on  his  manor.  This  put  a  pretty  decisive  check  to  the  hitherto 
uncontrolled  baronial  system  of  justice  —  or  injustice  —  with  its  pri¬ 
vate  dungeons  and  its  private  gibbets.  It  brought  everything  under 
the  eye  of  the  King’s  judges,  so  that  those  who  wished  to  appeal  to 
them  could  now  do  so  without  the  expense,  trouble,  and  danger  of  a 
journey  to  the  royal  palace. 

Again,  it  had  been  the  practice  among  the  Norman  barons  to  settle 
disputes  about  land  by  the  barbarous  method  of  trial  by  battle  (§  198); 
Henry  gave  tenants  the  right  to  have  the  case  decided  by  a  body  of 
twelve  knights  acquainted  with  the  facts. 

In  criminal  cases  a  great  change  was  likewise  effected.  Hence¬ 
forth  twelve  men  from  each  hundred,  with  four  from  each  township, 
—  sixteen  at  least,  —  acting  as  a  grand  jury,  were  to  present  all  sus¬ 
pected  criminals  to  the  circuit  judges.3  The  judges  sent  them  to  the 

1  Scutage:  see  §211  ;  the  demand  for  scutage  seems  to  show  that  the  feudal  tenure  was 
now  fully  organized,  and  that  the  whole  realm  was  by  this  time  divided  into  knights’  fees,, 
that  is,  into  portions  of  land  yielding  ^20  annually,  —  each  of  which  was  obliged  to  furnish 
one  fully  armed,  well-mounted  knight  to  serve  the  King  (if  called  on)  for  forty  days  annually. 

2  National  militia:  see  §§  121,  132. 

3  See  the  Assize  of  Clarendon  (1166)  in  Stubbs’  Select  Charters. 


Vlll 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


ordeal  (§  127)  ;  if  they  failed  to  pass  it,  they  were  then  punished  by 
law  as  convicted  felons  ;  if  they  did  pass  it,  they  were  banished  from 
the  kingdom  as  persons  of  evil  repute.  After  the  abolition  of  the 
ordeal  (1215),  a  petty  jury  of  witnesses  was  allowed  to  testify  in  favor 
of  the  accused,  and  clear  them  if  they  could  from  the  charges  brought 
by  the  grand  jury.  If  their  testimony  was  not  decisive,  more  wit¬ 
nesses  were  added  until  twelve  were  obtained  who  could  unanimously 
decide  one  way  or  the  other.  In  the  course  of  time1  this  smaller 
body  became  judges  of  the  evidence  for  or  against  the  accused,  and 
thus  the  modern  system  of  trial  by  jury  was  established. 

These  reforms  had  three  important  results  :  (1)  they  greatly  dimin¬ 
ished  the  power  of  the  barons  by  taking  the  administration  of  justice, 
in  large  measure,  out  of  their  hands  ;  (2)  they  established  a  more 
uniform  system  of  law;  (3)  they  brought  large  sums  of  money,  in 
the  way  of  court  fees  and  lines,  into  the  king’s  treasury,  and  so  made 
him  stronger  than  ever. 

But  meanwhile  Henry  was  carrying  on  a  still  sharper  battle  in  his 
attempt  to  bring  the  church  courts  —  which  William  I  had  separated 
from  the  ordinary  courts  —  under  control  of  the  same  system  of  jus¬ 
tice.  In  these  church  courts  any  person  claiming  to  belong  to  the 
clergy  had  a  right  to  be  tried.  Such  courts  had  no  power  to  inflict 
death,  even  for  murder.  In  Stephen’s  reign  many  notorious  crimi¬ 
nals  had  managed  to  get  themselves  enrolled  among  the  clergy,  and 
had  thus  escaped  the  hanging  they  deserved.  Henry  was  determined 
to  have  all  men  —  in  the  circle  of  clergy  or  out  of  it  —  stand  equal 
before  the  law.  Instead  of  two  kinds  of  justice,  he  would  have  but 
one  ;  this  would  not  only  secure  a  still  higher  uniformity  of  law,  but 
it  would  sweep  into  the  King’s  treasury  many  fat  fees  and  fines  which 
the  church  courts  were  then  getting  for  themselves. 

By  the  laws  entitled  the  “Constitutions  of  Clarendon”  (1164) 
(§  216),  the  common  courts  were  empowered  to  decide  whether  a  man 
claiming  to  belong  to  the  clergy  should  be  tried  by  the  church  courts 
or  not.  If  they  granted  him  the  privilege  of  a  church-court  trial,  they 
kept  a  sharp  watch  on  the  progress  of  the  case  ;  if  the  accused  was 
convicted,  he  must  then  be  handed  over  to  the  judges  of  the  ordinary 
courts,  and  they  took  especial  pains  to  convince  him  of  the  Bible 
truth,  that  “the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard.”  For  a  time  the 
Constitutions  were  rigidly  enforced,  but  in  the  end  Henry  was  forced 
to  renounce  them.  Later,  however,  the  principle  he  had  endeavored 
to  set  up  was  fully  established.2 

The  greatest  result  springing  from  Henry’s  efforts  was  the  training 

1  Certainly  by  1450;  but  as  late  as  the  reign  of  George  I  juries  were  accustomed  to  bring 
in  verdicts  determined  partly  by  their  own  personal  knowledge  of  the  facts.  See  Taswell- 
Langmead  (revised  ed.),  page  179. 

?  Edward  I  limited  the  jurisdiction  of  the  church  courts  to  purely  spiritual  cases,  such  as 
heresy  and  the  like;  but  the  work  which  he,  following  the  example  of  Henry  II,  liad 
undertaken  was  not  fully  accomplished  until  the  fifteenth  century. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


IX 


of  the  people  in  public  affairs,  and  the  definitive  establishment  of  that 
system  of  Common  Law  which  regards  the  people  as  the  supreme 
source  of  both  law  and  government,  and  which  is  directly  and  vitally 
connected  with  the  principle  of  representation  and  of  trial  by  jury.1 

9.  Rise  of  Free  Towns.  —  While  these  important  changes  were 
taking  place,  the  towns  were  growing  in  population  and  wealth  (§  234). 
But  as  these  towns  occupied  land  belonging  either  directly  to  the  King 
or  to  some  baron,  they  were  subject  to  the  authority  of  one  or  the 
other,  and  so  possessed  no  real  freedom.  In  the  reign  of  Richard  1 
many  towns  purchased  certain  rights  of  self-government  from  the 
King.2  This  power  of  controlling  their  own  affairs  greatly  increased 
their  prosperity,  and  in  time,  as  we  shall  see,  secured  them  a  voice  in 
the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  nation. 

10.  John’s  Loss  of  Normandy;  Magna  Carta.  —  Up  to  John’s 
reign  many  barons  continued  to  hold  large  estates  in  Normandy,  in 
addition  to  those  they  had  acquired  in  England  ;  hence  their  interests 
were  divided  between  the  two  countries.  Through  war  John  lost  his 
French  possessions  (§243).  Henceforth  the  barons  shut  out  from 
Normandy  came  to  look  upon  England  as  their  true  home.  From 
Henry  II’s  reign  the  Normans  and  the  English  had  been  gradually 
mingling  ;  from  this  time  they  became  practically  one  people.  John’s 
tyranny  and  cruelty  brought  their  union  into  sharp,  decisive  action. 
The  result  of  his  greed  for  money,  and  his  defiance  of  all  law,  was  a 
tremendous  insurrection.  Before  this  time  the  people  had  always 
taken  the  side  of  the  King  against  the  barons  ;  now,  with  equal  reason, 
they  turned  about  and  rose  with  the  barons  against  the  King. 

Under  the  guidance  of  Archbishop  Langton,  barons,  clergy,  and 
people  demanded  reform.  The  archbishop  brought  out  the  half- 
forgotten  charter  of  Henry  I.  This  now  furnished  a  model  for  Magna 
Carta,  or  the  “  Great  Charter  of  the  Liberties  of  England.”3 

It  contained  nothing  that  was  new  in  principle.  It  was  simply  a 
clearer,  fuller,  stronger  statement  of  those  “rights  of  Englishmen 
which  were  already  old.” 

John,  though  wild  with  rage,  did  not  dare  refuse  to  affix  his  royal 
seal  to  the  Great  Charter  of  1215.  By  doing  so  he  solemnly  guaran¬ 
teed  :  (1)  the  rights  of  the  Church  ;  (2)  those  of  the  barons  ;  (3) 
those  of  all  freemen  ;  (4)  those  of  the  villeins,  or  farm  laborers.  The 
value  of  this  charter  to  the  people  at  large  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
nearly  one-third  of  its  sixty-three  articles  were  inserted  in  their  behalf. 
Of  these  articles,  the  most  important  was  that  which  declared  that  no 
man  should  be  deprived  of  liberty  or  property,  or  injured  in  body  or 
estate,  save  by  the  judgment  of  his  equals  or  by  the  law  of  the  land. 

In  regard  to  taxation,  the  Charter  provided  that,  except  the  customary 

1  See  Green’s  Henry  II,  in  the  English  Statesmen  Series. 

2  See  §  234. 

3  Magna  Carta:  see  §§247-251,  and  see  Constitutional  Documents,  page  xxix. 


X 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


feudal  “  aids,” 1  none  should  be  levied  unless  by  the  consent  of 
the  National  Council.  Finally,  the  Charter  expressly  provided  that 
twenty-five  barons  —  one  of  whom  was  mayor  of  London  —  should 
be  appointed  to  compel  the  King  to  carry  out  his  agreement. 

1 1 .  Henry  III  and  the  Great  Charter ;  the  Forest  Charter ;  Pro¬ 
visions  of  Oxford  ;  Rise  of  the  House  of  Commons  ;  Important  Land 
Laws.  —  Under  Henry  III  the  Great  Charter  was  reissued.  But  the 
important  articles  which  forbade  the  King  to  levy  taxes  except  by 
consent  of  the  National  Council,  together  with  some  others  restricting 
his  power  to  increase  his  revenue,  were  dropped,  and  never  again 
restored.2 

On  the  other  hand,  Henry  was  obliged  to  issue  a  Forest  Charter, 
based  on  certain  articles  of  Magna  Carta,  which  declared  that  no  man 
should  lose  life  or  limb  for  hunting  in  the  royal  forests. 

Though  the  Great  Charter  was  now  shorn  of  some  of  its  safe¬ 
guards  to  liberty,  yet  it  was  still  so  highly  prized  that  its  confirmation 
was  purchased  at  a  high  price  from  successive  sovereigns.  Down  to 
the  second  year  of  Henry  Vi’s  reign  (1423),  we  find  that  it  had  been 
confirmed  no  less  than  thirty-seven  times. 

Notwithstanding  his  solemn  oath  (§  262),  the  vain  and  worthless 
Henry  III  deliberately  violated  the  provisions  of  the  Charter,  in 
order  to  raise  money  to  waste  in  his  foolish  foreign  wars  or  on  his 
court  circle  of  French  favorites. 

Finally  (1258),  a  body  of  armed  barons,  led  by  Simon  de  Montfort, 
Earl  of  Leicester,  forced  the  King  to  summon  a  Parliament  at  Oxford. 
There  a  scheme  of  reform,  called  the  “  Provisions  of  Oxford,”  was 
adopted  (§  261).  By  these  Provisions,  which  Henry  swore  to  observe, 
the  government  was  practically  taken  out  of  the  King’s  hands,  —  at 
least  as  far  as  he  had  power  to  do  mischief,  —  and  entrusted  to  certain 
councils  or  committees  of  state. 

A  few  years  later,  Henry  refused  to  abide  by  the  Provisions  of 
Oxford,  and  civil  war  broke  out.  De  Montfort,  Earl  of  Leicester, 
gained  a  decisive  victory  at  Lewes,  and  captured  the  King.  The  earl 
then  summoned  a  National  Council,  made  up  of  those  who  favored 
his  policy  of  reform  (§  265).  This  was  the  famous  Parliament  of 
1 265.  To  it  De  Montfort  summoned  :  ( 1 )  a  small  number  of  barons ; 
(2)  a  large  number  of  the  higher  clergy  ;  (3)  two  knights,  or  country 
gentlemen,  from  each  shire  ;  (4)  two  burghers,  or  citizens,  from 
every  town. 

The  knights  of  the  shire  had  been  summoned  to  Parliament 
before  ; 3  but  this  was  the  first  time  that  the  towns  had  been  invited 
to  send  representatives.  By  that  act  the  earl  set  the  example  of  giv¬ 
ing  the  people  at  large  a  fuller  share  in  the  government  than  they  had 

1  For  the  three  customary  feudal  aids,  see  §  200. 

2 See  Stubbs'  Select  Charters  (Edward  I),  page  484  ;  but  compare  note  1  on  page  443. 

3  They  were  first  summoned  by  John,  in  1213. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


XI 


yet  had.  To  De  Montfort,  therefore,  justly  belongs  the  glory  of 
being  “  the  founder  of  the  House  of  Commons  ”  ;  though  owing, 
perhaps,  to  his  death  shortly  afterward  at  the  battle  of  Evesham 
(1265),  the  regular  and  continuous  representation  of  the  towns  did 
not  begin  until  thirty  years  later. 

Meanwhile  (1279-1290),  three  land  laws  of  great  importance  were 
enacted.  The  first  limited  the  acquisition  of  landed  property  by  the 
Church  ; 1  the  second  encouraged  the  transmission  of  land  by  will  to 
the  eldest  son,  thus  keeping  estates  together  instead  of  breaking  them 
up  among  several  heirs  ; 2  the  third  made  purchasers  of  estates  the 
direct  feudal  tenants  of  the  King.3  The  object  of  these  three  laws 
was  to  prevent  landholders  from  evading  their  feudal  obligations  ; 
hence  they  decidedly  strengthened  the  royal  power.4 * 

12.  Edward  I’s  “Model  Parliament”;  Confirmation  of  the 
Charters. —  In  1295,  Edward  I,  one  of  the  ablest  men  that  ever  sat 
on  the  English  throne,  adopted  De  Montfort’s  scheme  of  representa¬ 
tion.  The  King  was  greatly  pressed  for  money,  and  his  object  was 
to  get  the  help  of  the  towns,  and  thus  secure  a  system  of  taxation 
which  should  include  all  classes.  With  the  significant  words,  “  That 
which  toucheth  all  should  be  approved  by  all,”  he  summoned  to 
Westminster  the  first  really  complete,  or  “  Model  Parliament  ” 
(§  269),®  consisting  of  King,  Lords  (temporal  and  spiritual),  and 
Commons.6  The  form  Parliament  then  received  it  has  kept  sub¬ 
stantially  ever  since.  We  shall  see  how  from  this  time  the  Commons 
gradually  grew  in  influence, — though  with  periods  of  relapse,  —  until 
at  length  they  have  become  the  controlling  power  in  legislation. 

Ten  years  after  the  meeting  of  the  “  Model  Parliament,”  in  order 
to  get  money  to  carry  on  a  war  with  France,  Edward  levied  a  tax  on 
the  barons,  and  seized  a  large  quantity  of  wool  belonging  to  the  mer¬ 
chants.  So  determined  was  the  resistance  to  these  acts  that  civil  war 
was  threatened.  In  order  to  avert  it,  the  King  was  obliged  to  sum¬ 
mon  a  Parliament  (1297),  and  to  sign  a  confirmation  of  both  the 
Great  Charter  and  the  Forest  Charter  (§  272).  He  furthermore 
bound  himself  in  the  most  solemn  manner  not  to  tax  his  subjects  or 
seize  their  goods  without  their  consent.  Henceforth  Parliament  alone 

1  Statute  of  Mortmain  (1279):  see  §  278;  it  was  especially  directed  against  the  acquisi- 
tion  of  land  by  monasteries. 

2  Statute  De  Donis  Conditionalibus  or  Kntail  (Westminster  II)  (1285) :  see  §  277. 

3  Statute  of  Quia  Emptores  (1290) :  see  §  277. 

4  During  the  same  period  the  Statute  of  Winchester  (1285)  reorganized  the  national 
militia  and  the  police  system.  See  §  276. 

c  De  Montfort’s  Parliament  was  not  wholly  lawful  and  regular,  because  not  voluntarily 
summoned  by  the  King  himself.  Parliament  must  be  summoned  by  the  sovereign,  opened 
by  the  sovereign  (in  person  or  by  commission);  all  laws  require  the  sovereign  s  signa¬ 
ture  to  complete  them ;  and,  finally,  Parliament  cau  be  suspended  or  dissolved  by  the 
sovereign  only. 

6  The  lower  clergy  were  summoned  to  send  representatives ;  but  their  representatives 
came  very  irregularly,  and  in  the  fourteenth  century  ceased  coming  altogether.  ^  From  that 
time  they  voted  their  supplies  for  the  Crown  in  Convocation,  until  1663,  when  Convocation 
ceased  to  meet.  The  higher  clergy  —  bishops  and  abbots  —  met  with  the  House  of  Lords. 


Xll 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


was  considered  to  hold  control  of  the  nation's  purse  ;  and  although 
this  principle  was  afterward  evaded,  no  king  openly  denied  its  bind¬ 
ing  force.  Furthermore,  in  Edward  II’s  reign  the  House  of  Commons 
gained  (1322),  for  the  first  time,  a  direct  share  in  legislation.  This 
step  had  results  of  supreme  constitutional  importance. 

13.  Division  of  Parliament  into  Two  Houses ;  Growth  of  the 
Power  of  the  Commons ;  Legislation  by  Statute ;  Impeachment ; 
Power  over  the  Purse.  —  In  Edward  Ill’s  reign  a  great  change 
occurred  in  Parliament.  The  knights  of  the  shire  (about  1343)  joined 
the  representatives  from  the  towns,  and  began  to  sit  apart  from  the 
Lords  as  a  distinct  House  of  Commons.  This  union  gave  that  House 
a  new  character,  and  invested  it  with  a  power  in  Parliament  which 
the  representation  from  the  towns  alone  could  not  have  exerted. 
But  though  thus  strengthened,  the  Commons  did  not  venture  to  claim 
an  equal  part  with  the  Lords  in  framing  laws.  Their  attitude  was 
that  of  humble  petitioners.  When  they  had  voted  the  supplies  of 
money  which  the  King  asked  for,  the  Commons  might  then  meekly 
beg  for  legislation.  Even  when  the  King  and  the  Lords  assented  to 
their  petitions,  the  Commons  often  found  to  their  disappointment  that 
the  laws  which  had  been  promised  did  not  correspond  to  those  for 
which  they  had  asked.  Henry  V  pledged  his  word  (1414)  that  the 
petitions,  when  accepted,  should  be  made  into  laws  without  any  altera¬ 
tion.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this  was  not  effectually  done  until 
near  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VI  (about  1461).  Then  the 
Commons  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  right  to  present  proposed  laws 
in  the  form  of  regular  bills  instead  of  petitions.  These  bills  when 
enacted  became  statutes  or  acts  of  Parliament,  as  we  know  them 
to-day.  This  change  was  a  most  important  one,  since  it  made  it 
impossible  for  the  King  with  .the  Lords  to  fraudulently  defeat  the 
expressed  will  of  the  Commons  after  they  had  once  assented  to  the 
legislation  the  Commons  desired. 

Meanwhile  the  Commons  gained,  for  the  first  time  (1376),  the 
right  of  impeaching  such  ministers  of  the  Crown  as  they  had  reason  to 
believe  were  unfaithful  to  the  interests  of  the  people.  This,  of  course, 
put  an  immense  restraining  power  in  their  hands,  since  they  could  now 
make  the  ministers  responsible,  in  great  measure,  for  the  King.1 

Next  (1406),  the  Commons  insisted  on  having  an  account  rendered 
of  the  money  spent  by  the  King  ;  and  at  times  they  even  limited  2 
their  appropriations  of  money  to  particular  purposes.  Finally,  in 
1407,  the  Commons  took  the  most  decided  step  of  all.  They  boldly 
demanded  and  obtained  the  exclusive  right  of  making  all  grants  of 
money  required  by  the  Crown.3 

1  But  after  1450  the  Commons  ceased  to  exercise  the  right  of  impeachment  until  1621, 
when  they  impeached  Lord  Bacon  and  others. 

2  The  Commons  dropped  the  right  of  appropriating  money  for  specific  objects, — except 
in  a  sirfgle  instance  under  Henry  VI,  —  and  did  not  revive  it  until  1624. 

3  This  right  the  Commons  never  surrendered. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


X1U 


In  future  the  King  —  unless  he  violated  the  law  —  had  to  look  to 
the  Commons  —  that  is,  to  the  direct  representation  of  the  mass 
of  the  people  —  for  his  chief  supplies.  This  made  the  will  of  the 
Commons  more  powerful  than  it  had  ever  been. 

14.  Religious  Legislation ;  Emancipation  of  the  Villeins ;  Dis¬ 
franchisement  of  County  Electors.  —  The  Parliament  of  Merton  had 
already  (1236)  refused  to  introduce  the  canon  or  ecclesiastical  law 
(§  317).  In  the  next  century  two  very  important  statutes  relating  to 
the  Church  were  enacted, — that  of  Provisors  (1350)1  and  of  Prae¬ 
munire  (1353  and  1 393), 2  —  limiting  the  power  of  the  Pope  over  the 
English  Church.  On  the  other  hand,  the  rise  of  the  Lollards  had 
caused  a  statute  to  be  passed  (1401)  against  heretics,  and  under  it 
the  first  martyr  had  been  burned  in  England.  During  this  period  the 
villeins  had  risen  in  insurrection  (1381)  (§§  302-304),  and  were 
gradually  gaining  their  liberty.  Thus  a  very  large  body  of  people 
who  had  been  practically  excluded  from  political  rights  now  began  to 
slowly  acquire  them.3  But,  on  the  other  hand,  a  statute  was  enacted 
(1430)  which  prohibited  all  persons  having  an  income  of  less  than 
forty  shillings  a  year  —  or  what  would  be  equal  to  forty  pounds  at  the 
present  value  of  money  —  from  voting  for  knights  of  the  shire  (§  349). 
The  consequence  was  that  the  poorer  and  humbler  classes  in  the 
country  were  no  longer  directly  represented  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

15.  Wars  of  the  Roses ;  Decline  of  Parliament ;  Partial  Revival 
of  its  Power  under  Elizabeth.  —  The  Civil  Wars  of  the  Roses 
([455-1485)  gave  a  decided  check  to  the  further  development  of 
parliamentary  power.  Many  noble  families  were  ruined  by  the  pro¬ 
tracted  struggle,  and  the  new  nobles  created  by  the  King  were  pledged 
to  uphold  the  interests  of  the  Crown.  Furthermore,  numerous  towns 
absorbed  in  their  own  local  affairs  ceased  to  elect  members  to  the 
Commons.  Thus,  with  a  House  of  Lords  on  the  side  of  royal  author¬ 
ity,  and  with  a  House  of  Commons  diminished  in  numbers  and  in 
influence,  the  decline  of  the  independent  attitude  of  Parliament  was 
inevitable. 

The  result  of  these  changes  was  very  marked.  From  the  reign  of 
Henry  VI  to  that  of  Elizabeth — -a  period  of  about  two  hundred 
years  —  “the  voice  of  Parliament  was  rarely  heard.”  The  Tudors 
practically  set  up  a  new  or  “  personal  monarchy,”  in  which  their  will 
rose  above  both  Parliament  and  the  constitution; 4  and  Henry  VII, 


1  Provisors :  this  was  a  law  forbidding  the  Pope  to  provide  any  person  (by  anticipation) 
with  a  position  in  the  English  Church  until  the  death  of  the  incumbent. 

2  Praemunire:  see  Constitutional  Documents,  page  xxxii.  Neither  the  law  of  Provisors 
nor  of  Praemunire  was  strictly  enforced  until  Henry  VI  II’s  reign. 

3  Villeins  appear,  however,  to  have  had  the  right  of  voting  for  knights  of  the  shire  until 
the  statute  of  1430  disfranchised  them. 

4  Theoretically  Henry  VII’s  power  was  restrained  by  certain  checks  (see  §  380,  note  1), 
and  even  Henry  VIII  generally  ruled  according  to  the  letter  of  the  law,  however  much  he 
may  have  violated  its  spirit.  It  is  noticeable,  too,  that  it  was  under  Henry  VIII  (1541)  that 
Parliament  first  formally  claimed  freedom  of  speech  as  one  of  its  “  undoubted  privileges.” 


XIV 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


instead  of  asking  the  Commons  for  money,  extorted  it  in  fines  enforced 
by  his  Court  of  Star-Chamber,  or  compelled  his  wealthy  subjects 
to  grant  it  to  him  in  “benevolences”  (§§  359,  382),  —  those  “loving 
contributions,”  as  the  King  called  them,  “lovingly  advanced”! 

During  this  period  England  laid  claim  to  a  new  continent,  and 
Henry  VIII,  repudiating  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  declared  himself 
the  “supreme  head  ”  (1 535)  of  the  English  Catholic  Church.  In  the 
next  reign  (Edward  VI)  the  Catholic  worship,  which  had  existed  in 
England  for  nearly  a  thousand  years,  was  abolished  (1540),  and  the 
Protestant  faith  became  henceforth — -except  during  Mary’s  short  reign 
—  the  established  religion  of  the  kingdom.  It  was  enforced  by  two  Acts 
of  Uniformity  (1 549,  1 552).  One  effect  of  the  overthrowof  Catholicism 
was  to  change  the  character  of  the  House  of  Lords,  by  reducing  the 
number  of  spiritual  lords  from  a  majority  to  a  minority,  as  they  have 
ever  since  remained  (§  458,  note  2). 

At  the  beginning  of  Elizabeth’s  reign  the  Second  Act  of  Supremacy 
( 1 559)  shut  out  all  Catholics  from  the  House  of  Commons  (§  434). 
Protestantism  was  fully  and  finally  established  as  the  state  religion,1 
embodied  in  the  creed  known  as  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (1563)  ;  and 
by  the  Third  Act  of  Uniformity  (1559)  very  severe  measures  were 
taken  against  all  —  whether  Catholics  or  Puritans  —  who  refused  to 
conform  to  the  Episcopal  mode  of  worship.  The  High  Commission 
Court  was  organized  (1 583)  to  try  and  to  punish  heretics  —  whether 
Catholics  or  Puritans.  The  great  number  of  paupers  caused  by  the 
destruction  of  the  monasteries  under  Henry  VIII  and  the  gradual 
decay  of  relations  of  feudal  service  caused  the  passage  of  the  first 
Poor  Law  (1601)  (§  455),  and  so  brought  the  Government  face  to 
face  with  a  problem  which  has  never  yet  been  satisfactorily  settled  ; 
namely,  what  to  do  with  habitual  paupers  and  tramps. 

The  closing  part  of  Elizabeth’s  reign  marks  the  revival  of  parlia¬ 
mentary  power.  The  House  of  Commons  now  had  many  Puritan  mem¬ 
bers,  and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  assert  their  right  to  advise  the  Queen 
on  all  questions  of  national  importance.  Elizabeth  sharply  rebuked 
them  for  presuming  to  meddle  with  questions  of  religion,  or  for  urging 
her  either  to  take  a  husband  or  to  name  a  successor  to  the  throne  ;  but 
even  she  did  not  venture  to  run  directly  counter  to  the  will  of  the 
people.  When  the  Commons  demanded  ( 1 60 1 )  that  she  should  put  a 
stop  to  the  pernicious  practice  of  granting  trading  monopolies  (§  440) 
to  her  favorites,  she  was  obliged  to  yield  her  assent. 

16.  James  I ;  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings ;  Struggle  with 
Parliament.  —  James  began  his  reign  by  declaring  that  kings  rule  not 
b}^  the  will  of  the  people,  but  by  “divine  right.”  “God  makes  the 
King,”  said  lie,  “and  the  King  makes  the  law”  (§  471).  For  this 
reason  he  demanded  that  his  proclamations  should  have  all  the  force 


1  By  the  third  Act  of  Uniformity  and  the  establishment  of  the  High  Commission  Court, 
see  §  433.  The  first  and  second  Acts  of  Uniformity  were  enacted  under  Edward  VI  (§  414). 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


XV 


of  acts  of  Parliament.  Furthermore,  since  he  appointed  the  judges, 
he  could  generally  get  their  decisions  to  support  him  ;  thus  he  made 
even  the  courts  of  justice  serve  as  instruments  of  his  will.  In  his 
arrogance  he  declared  that  neither  Parliament  nor  the  people  had  any 
right  to  discuss  matters  of  state,  whether  foreign  or  domestic,  since 
he  was  resolved  to  reserve  such  questions  for  the  royal  intellect  to 
deal  with.  By  his  religious  intolerance  he  maddened  both  Puritans 
and  Catholics,  and  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  fled  from  England  to  escape 
his  tyranny. 

But  there  was  a  limit  set  to  his  overbearing  conceit.  When  he 
dictated  to  the  Commons  (1604)  what  persons  should  sit  in  that  body, 
they  indignantly  refused  to  submit  to  any  interference  on  his  part, 
and  their  refusal  was  so  emphatic  that  James  never  brought  up  the 
matter  again. 

The  King,  however,  was  so  determined  to  shut  out  members  whom 
he  did  not  like  that  he  attempted  to  gain  his  ends  by  having  such 
persons  seized  on  charge  of  debt  and  thrown  into  prison.  The  Com¬ 
mons,  on  the  other  hand,  not  only  insisted  that  their  ancient  privilege 
of  exemption  from  arrest  in  such  cases  should  be  respected,  but  they 
passed  a  special  law  (1604)  to  clinch  the  privilege. 

Ten  years  later  (1614)  James,  pressed  for  money,  called  a  Parlia¬ 
ment  to  get  supplies.  He  had  taken  precautions  to  get  a  majority  of 
members  elected  who  would,  he  hoped,  vote  him  what  he  wanted. 
But  to  his  dismay  the  Commons  declined  to  grant  him  a  penny  unless 
he  would  promise  to  cease  imposing  illegal  duties  on  merchandise. 
The  King  angrily  refused,  and  dissolved  the  so-called  “Addled 
Parliament.”  1 

Finally,  in  order  to  show  James  that  it  would  not  be  trifled  with,  a 
later  Parliament  (1621)  revived  the  right  of  impeachment,  which  had 
not  been  resorted  to  since  1450. 2  The  Commons  now  charged  Lord 
Chancellor  Bacon,  judge  of  the  High  Court  of  Chancery,  and  “  keeper 
of  the  King’s  conscience,”  with  accepting  bribes.  Bacon  held  the 
highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  Crown,  and  the  real  object  of  the  impeach¬ 
ment  was  to  strike  the  King  through  the  person  of  his  chief  official 
and  supporter.  Bacon  confessed  his  crime,  saying,  “  I  was  the  justest 
judge  that  was  in  England  these  fifty  years,  but  it  was  the  justest 
censure  in  Parliament  that  was  these  two  hundred  years.” 

James  tried  his  best  to  save  his  servile  favorite,  but  it  was  useless, 
and  Bacon  was  convicted,  disgraced,  and  partially  punished  (§477). 

The  Commons  of  the  same  Parliament  petitioned  the  King  against 
the  alleged  growth  of  the  Catholic  religion  in  the  kingdom,  and  espe¬ 
cially  against  the  proposed  marriageof  the  Princeof  Wales  to  a  Spanish 
Catholic  princess.  James  ordered  the  Commons  to  let  mysteries  of 


1  This  Parliament  was  nicknamed  the  “  Addled  Parliament,”  because  it  did  not  enact  a 
single  law,  though  it  most  effectually  “addled”  the  King’s  plans.  See  §  476. 

2  See  §  13  of  this  Summary. 


XVI 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


state  alone.  They  claimed  liberty  of  speech.  The  King  asserted  that 
they  had  no  liberties  except  such  as  the  royal  power  saw  fit  to  grant. 
Then  the  Commons  drew  up  their  famous  Protest,  in  which  they 
declared  that  their  liberties  were  not  derived  from  the  king,  but  were 
“  the  ancient  and  undoubted  birthright  and  inheritance  of  the  people  of 
England.”  In  his  rage  James  ordered  the  journal  of  the  Commons 
to  be  brought  to  him,  tore  out  the  Protest  with  his  own  hand,  and  sent 
five  of  the  members  of  the  House  to  prison  (§  471).  This  rash  act 
made  the  Commons  more  determined  than  ever  not  to  yield  to  arbi¬ 
trary  power.  James  died  three  years  later,  leaving  his  unfortunate 
son  Charles  to  settle  the  angry  controversy  he  had  raised. 

17.  Charles  I;  Forced  Loans;  the  Petition  of  Right.  —  Charles  I 
came  to  the  throne  full  of  his  father’s  lofty  ideas  of  the  Divine  Right  of 
Kings  to  govern  as  they  pleased.  In  private  life  he  was  conscientious, 
but  in  his  public  policy  he  was  a  man  “  of  dark  and  crooked  ways.” 

He  had  married  a  French  Catholic  princess,  and  the  Puritans,  who 
were  now  very  strong  in  the  House  of  Commons,  believed  that  the  King 
secretly  sympathized  with  the  Queen’s  religion.  This  was  not  the  case  ; 
for  Charles,  after  his  peculiar  fashion,  was  a  sincere  Protestant,  though 
he  favored  the  introduction  into  the  English  Church  of  some  of  the 
ceremonies  peculiar  to  Catholic  worship. 

The  Commons  showed  their  distrust  of  the  King  by  voting  him  the 
tax  of  tonnage  and  poundage  (certain  duties  levied  on  wine  and  mer¬ 
chandise),  for  a  single  year  only,  instead  of  for  life,  as  had  been  their 
custom.  The  Lords  refused  to  assent  to  such  a  limited  grant,1  and 
Charles  deliberately  collected  the  tax  without  the  authority  of  Parlia¬ 
ment.  Failing,  however,  to  get  a  sufficient  supply  in  that  way,  the 
King  forced  men  of  property  to  grant  him  “  benevolences,”  and  to 
loan  him  large  sums  of  money  with  no  hope  of  its  return.  Those  who 
dared  to  refuse  were  thrown  into  prison  on  some  pretended  charge,  or 
had  squads  of  brutal  soldiers  quartered  in  their  houses. 

When  even  these  measures  failed  to  supply  his  wants,  Charles  was 
forced  to  summon  a  Parliament,  and  ask  for  help.  Instead  of  granting 
it,  the  Commons  drew  up  the  Petition  of  Right2  of  1628,  as  an  indig¬ 
nant  remonstrance,  and  as  a  safeguard  against  further  acts  of  tyranny. 
This  Petition  has  been  called  the  “  Second  Great  Charter  of  the  Liber¬ 
ties  of  England.”  It  declared  :  1 .  That  no  one  should  be  compelled  to 
pay  any  tax  or  to  supply  the  king  with  money,  except  by  order  of  act 
of  Parliament.  2.  That  neither  soldiers  nor  sailors  should  be  quartered 
in  private  houses.3  3.  That  no  one  should  be  imprisoned  or  punished 
contrary  to  law.  Charles  was  forced  by  his  need  of  money  to  assent  to 
this  Petition,  which  thus  became  a  most  important  part  of  the  English 
constitution.  But  the  King  did  not  keep  his  word.  When  Parliament 

1  $ee  Taswell-Langmead  (revised  edition),  page  557,  note. 

2  Petition  of  Right :  see  §  484,  and  Constitutional  Documents,  page  xxix. 

3  The  king  was  also  deprived  of  the  power  to  press  citizens  into  the  army  and  navy. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


XV 11 


next  met  (1629),  it  refused  to  grant  money  unless  Charles  would  renew 
his  pledge  not  to  violate  the  law.  The  King  made  some  concessions, 
but  finally  resolved  to  adjourn  Parliament.  Several  members  of  the 
Commons  held  the  Speaker  in  the  chair  by  force,  —  thus  preventing 
the  adjournment  of  the  House,  —  until  resolutions  offered  by  Sir  John 
Eliot  were  passed  (§  486).  These  resolutions  were  aimed  directly  at 
the  King.  They  declared  :  (1)  that  he  is  a  traitor  who  attempts  any 
change  in  the  established  religion  of  the  kingdom  ; 1  (2)  who  levies 
any  tax  not  voted  by  Parliament ;  (3)  or  who  voluntarily  pays  such 
a  tax.  Parliament  then  adjourned. 

18.  “Thorough”;  Ship  Money;  the  “Short  Parliament.”  —  The 
King  swore  that  “the  vipers”  who  opposed  him  should  have  their 
reward.  Eliot  was  thrown  into  prison,  and  kept  there  till  he  died. 
Charles  made  up  his  mind  that,  with  the  help  of  Archbishop  Laud 
in  church  matters,  and  of  Lord  Strafford  in  affairs  of  state,  he  would 
rule  without  Parliaments.  Strafford  urged  the  King  to  adopt  the 
policy  of  “  Thorough  ” 1  2  (§  487) ;  in  other  words,  to  follow  the  bent 
of  his  own  will  without  consulting  the  will  of  the  nation.  This,  of 
course,  practically  meant  the  overthrow  of  parliamentary  and  con¬ 
stitutional  government.  Charles  heartily  approved  of  this  plan  for 
setting  up  what  he  called  a  “  beneficent  despotism  ”  based  on  “  Divine 
Right.” 

The  King  now  resorted  to  various  illegal  means  to  obtain  supplies. 
The  last  device  he  hit  upon  was  that  of  raising  ship  money.  To  do 
this,  he  levied  a  tax  on  all  the  counties  of  England,  —  inland  as  well 
as  seaboard,  —  on  the  pretext  that  he  purposed  building  a  navy  for 
the  defence  of  the  kingdom.  John  Hampden  refused  to  pay  the  tax, 
but  Charles’  servile  judges  decided  against  him,  when  the  case  was 
brought  into  court  (§  488). 

Charles  ruled  without  a  Parliament  for  eleven  years.  He  might, 
perhaps,  have  gone  on  in  this  way  for  as  many  more,  had  he  not 
provoked  the  Scots  to  rebel  by  attempting  to  force  a  modified  form 
of  the  English  Prayer-Book  on  the  Church  of  that  country  (§  490). 
The  necessities  of  the  war  with  the  Scots  compelled  the  King  to  call 
a  Parliament.  It  declined  to  grant  the  King  money  to  carry  on  the 
war  unless  he  would  give  some  satisfactory  guarantee  of  governing 
according  to  the  will  of  the  people.  Charles  refused  to  do  this,  and 
after  a  three  weeks’  session  he  dissolved  what  was  known  as  the 
“  Short  Parliament.” 

19.  The  “Long  Parliament”;  the  Civil  War. — But  the  war 

gave  Charles  no  choice,  and  before  the  year  was  out  he  was  obliged 

1  The  Puritans  generally  believed  that  the  King  wished  to  restore  the  Catholic  religion  as 
the  Established  Church  of  England,  but  in  this  idea  they  were  mistaken. 

2  “Thorough”:  Strafford  wrote  to  Laud,  “You  may  govern  as  you  please.  ...  I  am 
confident  that  the  King  is  able  to  carry  any  just  and  honorable  action  thorough  [/.<?.,  through 
or  against]  all  imaginable  opposition.”  Both  Strafford  and  Laud  used  this  word  “  thorough,” 
in  this  sense,  to  designate  their  tyrannical  policy. 


XV111 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


to  call  the  famous  “Long  Parliament”  of  1640.1  That  body  met 
with  the  firm  determination  to  restore  the  liberties  of  Englishmen  or 
to  perish  in  the  attempt.  1.  It  impeached  Strafford  and  Laud,  and 
sent  them  to  the  scaffold  as  traitors.2  2.  It  swept  away  those  instru¬ 
ments  of  royal  oppression,  the  Court  of  Star-Chamber  and  the  High 
Commission  Court  (§§382,  433).  3.  It  expelled  the  bishops  from 

the  House  of  Lords.  4.  It  passed  the  Triennial  Bill,  compelling  the 
King  to  summon  a  Parliament  at  least  once  in  three  years.3  5.  It 
also  passed  a  law  declaring  that  the  King  could  not  suspend  or  dis¬ 
solve  Parliament  without  its  consent.  6.  Last  of  all,  the  Commons 
drew  up  the  Grand  Remonstrance  (§491),  enunciating  at  great  length 
the  grievances  of  the  last  sixteen  years,  and  vehemently  appealing  to 
the  people  to  support  them  in  their  attempts  at  reform.  The  Remon¬ 
strance  was  printed  and  distributed  throughout  England.4 

About  a  month  later  (1642)  the  King,  at  the  head  of  an  armed 
force,  undertook  to  seize  Hampden,  Pym,  and  three  other  of  the 
most  active  members  of  the  Commons  on  a  charge  of  treason  (§  492). 
The  attempt  failed.  Soon  afterward  the  Commons  passed  the  Militia 
Bill,  and  thus  took  the  command  of  the  national  militia  and  of  the 
chief  fortresses  of  the  realm,  “  to  hold,”  as  they  said,  “for  King  and 
Parliament.”  The  act  was  unconstitutional  ;  but,  after  the  attempted 
seizure  of  the  five  members,  the  Commons  felt  certain  that  if  they 
left  the  command  of  the  militia  in  the  King’s  hands,  they  would 
simply  sign  their  own  death  warrant. 

In  resentment  of  this  action,  Charles  now  (1642)  began  the  civil 
war.  It  resulted  in  the  execution  of  the  King,  and  in  the  temporary 
overthrow  of  the  monarchy,  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  Established 
Episcopal  Church  (§  300).  In  place  of  the  monarchy,  the  party  in 
power  set  up  a  short-lived  Puritan  Republic.  This  was  followed  by 
the  Protectorate  of  Oliver  Cromwell  and  that  of  his  son  Richard 
(§§  507-SI7)- 

20.  Charles  II ;  Abolition  of  Feudal  Tenure ;  Establishment  of  a 
Standing  Army.  —  In  1660  the  people,  weary  of  the  Protectorate 
form  of  government,  welcomed  the  return  of  Charles  II.  His  coming 
marks  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy,  of  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
of  the  National  Episcopal  Church. 

A  great  change  was  now  effected  in  the  source  of  the  King’s 
revenue.  Hitherto  it  had  sprung  largely  from  feudal  dues.  These 


1  The  “Long  Parliament”:  it  sat  from  1640  to  1653,  and  was  not  finally  dissolved 
until  1660. 

2  Charles  assured  Strafford  that  Parliament  should  not  touch  “a  hair  of  his  head”;  but 

to  save  himself  the  King  signed  the  Bill  of  Attainder  (see  page  xxxii),  which  sent  his  ablest 
and  most  faithful  servant  to  the  block.  Well  might  Strafford  exclaim,  “  Put  not  your  trust 
in  princes.”  #  j 

3  The  Triennial  Act  was  repealed  in  1664,  and  reenacted  in  1694.  In  1716  the  Septennial 
Act  increased  the  limit  of  three  years  to  seven.  This  act  is  still  in  force. 

4  The  press  soon  became,  for  the  first  time,  a  most  active  agent  of  political  agitation,  both 
for  and  against  the  King.  See  §  495. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


XIX 


had  long  been  difficult  to  collect,  because  the  Feudal  System  had 
practically  died  out.  The  feudal  land  tenure  with  its  dues  was  now 
abolished,  —  a  reform,  says  Blackstone,  greater  even  than  that  of 
Magna  Carta,  —  and  in  their  place  a  tax  was  levied  for  a  fixed  sum 
(§  534)-  This  tax  should  in  justice  have  fallen  on  the  landowners, 
who  profited  by  the  change  ;  but  they  managed  to  evade  it,  in  great 
measure,  and  by  getting  it  levied  on  beer  and  some  other  liquors, 
they  forced  the  working  classes  to  shoulder  the  chief  part  of  the 
burden,  which  they  still  continue  to  carry. 

Parliament  now  restored  the  command  of  the  militia  to  the  King  ; 1 
and,  for  the  first  time  in  English  history,  it  also  gave  him  the  com¬ 
mand  of  a  standing  army  of  five  thousand  men,  —  thus,  in  one  way, 
making  him  more  powerful  than  ever  before  (§  519). 

On  the  other  hand,  Parliament  revived  the  practice  of  limiting  its 
appropriations  of  money  to  specific  purposes.2  It  furthermore  began 
to  require  an  exact  account  of  how  the  King  spent  the  money,  —  a 
most  embarrassing  question  for  Charles  to  answer.  Again,  Parlia¬ 
ment  did  not  hesitate  to  impeach  and  remove  the  King’s  ministers 
whenever  they  forfeited  the  confidence  of  that  body.3 

The  religious  legislation  of  this  period  marks  the  strong  reaction 
from  Puritanism  which  had  set  in.  1.  The  Corporation  Act  (1661) 
excluded  all  persons  who  did  not  renounce  the  Puritan  Covenant, 
and  partake  of  the  Sacrament  according  to  the  Church  of  England, 
from  holding  municipal  or  other  corporate  offices  (§  524).  2.  The 

fourth  Act  of  Uniformity4 5  required  all  clergymen  to  accept  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  (1662)  the  Church  of  England  (§  524). 
The  result  of  this  law  was  that  no  less  than  two  thousand  Puritan 
ministers  were  driven  from  their  pulpits  in  a  single  day.  3.  The 
Conventicle  Act  (§  524)  followed  (1664).  It  forbade  the  preaching 
or  hearing  of  Puritan  doctrines,  under  severe  penalties.  4.  The  Five- 
Mile  Act  (1665)  (§  524)®  prohibited  nonconforming  clergymen  from 
teaching,  or  from  coming  within  five  miles  of  any  corporate  town 
(except  when  travelling). 

21.  Origin  of  Cabinet  Government;  the  Secret  Treaty  of  Dover; 
the  Test  Act ;  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act.  —  Charles  made  a  great  and 
most  important  change  with  respect  to  the  Privy  Council.  Instead 
of  consulting  the  entire  Council  on  matters  of  state,  he  established 
the  custom  of  inviting  a  few  only  to  meet  with  him  in  his  cabinet, 
or  private  room.  This  limited  body  of  confidential  advisers  was 
called  the  “  Cabal,”  or  secret  council  (§  522). 

1  See  Militia  Bill,  §  19  of  this  Summary.  2  See  §  13  of  this  Summary. 

3  See  §  13  of  this  Summary  (Impeachment). 

4  The  first  and  second  Acts  of  Uniformity  date  from  Edward  VI  (1549,  1552);  the  third 

from  Elizabeth  (1559).  See  §§414,  433,  524. 

5  The  Five-Mile  Act  (1665)  excepted  those  clergymen  who  took  the  oath  of  non-resistance 
to  the  King,  and  who  swore  not  to  attempt  to  alter  the  constitution  of  Church  or  State.  See 
Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  England. 


XX 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Charles’  great  ambition  was  to  increase  his  standing  army,  to  rule 
independently  of  Parliament,  and  to  get  an  abundance  of  money  to 
spend  on  his  extravagant  pleasures  and  vices. 

In  order  to  accomplish  these  three  ends  he  made  a  secret  and 
shameful  treaty  with  Louis  XIV  of  France  (1670)  (§528).  Louis 
wished  to  crush  the  Dutch  Protestant  Republic  of  Holland,  to  get 
possession  of  Spain,  and  to  secure,  if  possible,  the  ascendency  of 
Catholicism  in  England  as  well  as  throughout  Europe.  Charles, 
who  was  destitute  of  any  religious  principle,  —  or,  in  fact,  of  any 
sense  of  honor,  —  agreed  publicly  to  declare  himself  a  Catholic,  to 
favor  the  propagation  of  that  faith  in  England,  and  to  make  war  on 
Holland  in  return  for  very  liberal  grants  of  money,  and  for  the  loan 
of  six  thousand  French  troops  by  Louis,  to  help  him  put  down  any 
opposition  in  England.  Two  members  of  the  Cabal  were  acquainted 
with  the  terms  of  this  secret  Treaty  of  Dover.  Charles  made  a  second 
secret  treaty  with  Louis  XIV  in  1678. 

Charles  did  not  dare  openly  to  avow  himself  a  convert  —  or  pre¬ 
tended  convert  —  to  the  Catholic  religion  ;  but  he  issued  a  Declara¬ 
tion  of  Indulgence  (1672)  suspending  the  harsh  statutes  against  the 
English  Catholics  (§  529). 

Parliament  took  the  alarm  and  passed  the  Test  Act  (1673),  by 
which  all  Catholics  were  shut  out  from  holding  any  government  office 
or  position  (§  5 29).  This  act  broke  up  the  Cabal,  by  compelling  a 
Catholic  nobleman,  who  was  one  of  its  leading  members,  to  resign. 
Later,  Parliament  further  showed  its  power  by  compelling  the  King 
to  sign  the  Act  of  Habeas  Corpus  (1679)  (§  534),  which  put  an  end 
to  his  arbitrarily  throwing  men  into  prison,  and  keeping  them  there,  in 
order  to  stop  their  free  discussion  of  his  plots  against  the  constitution.1 

But  though  the  Cabal  had  been  broken  up,  the  principle  of  a  lim¬ 
ited  private  council  survived,  and  thirty  years  after  the  Revolution 
of  1688  it  was  revived,  and  took  the  name  of  the  “  Cabinet  ”  (§  583). 
Under  the  leadership  of  the  Prime  Minister,  who  is  its  head,  the  Cabi¬ 
net  has  become  responsible  for  the  policy  of  the  sovereign.2 *  Should 
Parliament  decidedly  oppose  that  policy,  the  Prime  Minister,  with  his 
Cabinet,  either  resigns,  and  a  new  Cabinet  is  chosen,  or  the  minister 
appeals  to  the  people  for  support,  and  the  sovereign  dissolves  Parlia¬ 
ment  and  orders  a  new  parliamentary  election,  by  which  the  nation 
decides  the  question.  This  method  renders  the  old,  and  never  desir¬ 
able,  remedy  of  the  impeachment  of  the  ministers  of  the  sovereign  no 
longer  necessary.  The  Prime  Minister — who  answers  for  the  acts 
of  the  sovereign  and  for  his  policy — is  more  directly  responsible  to 
the  people  than  is  the  President  of  the  United  States. 


1  See  Habeas  Corpus  Act  in  Constitutional  Documents,  page  xxxii. 

2  The  real  efficiency  of  the  cabinet  system  of  government  was  not  fully  developed  until 

after4  the  Reform  Act  of  1832  had  widely  extended  the  right  of  suffrage,  and  thus  made  the 

government  more  directly  responsible  to  the  people.  See  §  583,  and  note  2. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


XXI 


22.  The  Pretended  “  Popish  Plot  ”  ;  Rise  of  the  Whigs  and  the 
Tories ;  Revocation  of  Town  Charters.  —  The  pretended  “  Popish 
Plot”  (1678)  (§530)  to  kill  the  King,  in  order  to  place  his  brother 
James  — a  Catholic  convert  —  on  the  throne,  caused  the  rise  of  a 
strong  movement  (1680)  to  exclude  James  from  the  right  of  succes¬ 
sion.  The  Exclusion  Bill  failed  (§  530)  ;  but  the  Disabling  Act  was 
passed  (1678),  excluding  Catholics  from  sitting  in  either  House  of 
Parliament  ;  but  an  exception  was  made  in  favor  of  the  Duke  of 
York.  Henceforward  two  prominent  political  parties  appear  in  Parlia¬ 
ment, —  one,  that  of  the  Whigs  or  Liberals,  bent  on  extending  the 
power  of  the  people;  the  other,  that  of  the  Tories  or  Conservatives, 
resolved  to  maintain  the  power  of  the  Crown. 

Charles,  of  course,  did  all  in  his  power  to  encourage  the  latter 
party.  In  order  to  strengthen  their  numbers  in  the  Commons,  he 
found  pretexts  for  revoking  the  charters  of  many  Whig  towns  (§  531). 
He  then  issued  new  charters  to  these  towns,  giving  the  power  of  elec¬ 
tion  to  the  Tories.1  While  engaged  in  this  congenial  work  the  King 
died,  and  his  brother  James  came  to  the  throne. 

23.  James  II ;  the  Dispensing  Power ;  Declaration  of  Indul¬ 
gence;  the  Revolution  of  1688. — James  II  was  a  zealous  Catholic, 
and  therefore  naturally  desired  to  secure  freedom  of  worship  in  Eng¬ 
land  for  people  of  his  own  faith.  In  his  zeal  he  went  too  far,  and 
the  Pope  expressed  his  disgust  at  the  King’s  foolish  rashness.  By 
the  exercise  of  the  Dispensing  Power2  he  suspended  the  Test  Act 
and  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  in  order  that  Catholics  might  be  relieved 
from  the  penalties  imposed  by  these  laws,  and  also  for  the  purpose  of 
giving  them  civil  and  military  offices,  from  which  the  Test  Act 
excluded  them  (§540).  James  also  established  a  new  High  Com¬ 
mission  Court3  (§  540),  and  made  the  infamous  Judge  Jeffreys  the 
head  of  this  despotic  tribunal.  This  court  had  the  supervision  of 
all  churches  and  institutions  of  education.  Its  main  object  was  to 
further  the  spread  of  Catholicism,  and  to  silence  those  clergymen 
who  preached  against  that  faith.  The  King  appointed  a  Catholic 
president  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  and  expelled  from  the  college 
all  who  opposed  the  appointment.  Later,  he  issued  two  Declarations 
of  Indulgence  (1687,  1688),  in  which  he  proclaimed  universal  reli¬ 
gious  toleration  (§  540).  It  was  generally  believed  that  under  cover 
of  these  declarations  the  King  intended  to  favor  the  ascendency  of 
Catholicism.  Seven  bishops,  who  petitioned  for  the  privilege  of 
declining  to  read  the  declarations  from  their  pulpits,  were  imprisoned, 

1  The  right  of  election  in  many  towns  was  then  confined  to  the  town  officers  or  to  a  few 
influential  inhabitants.  This  continued  to  be  the  case  until  the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill 
in  1832. 

2  This  was  the  exercise  of  the  right,  claimed  by  the  King  as  one  of  his  prerogatives,  of 
exempting  individuals  from  the  penalty  of  certain  laws.  The  King  also  claimed  the  right  of 
suspending  entirely  (as  in  the  case  of  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence)  one  or  more  statutes. 
Both  these  rights  had  been  exercised,  at  times,  from  a  very  early  date. 

3  New  High  Commission  Court:  see  §  19  of  this  Summary. 


xxii  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 

but  on  their  trial  were  acquitted  by  a  jury  in  full  sympathy  with 
them  (§  541). 

These  acts  of  the  King,  together  with  the  fact  that  he  had  greatly 
increased  the  standing  army,  and  had  stationed  it  just  outside  of 
London,  caused  great  alarm  throughout  England  (§  540).  The 
majority  of  the  people  of  both  parties  (§531)  believed  that  James 
was  plotting  1  to  subvert  and  extirpate  the  Protestant  religion  and 
the  laws  and  liberties  of  the  kingdom.’ 1 

Still,  so  long  as  the  King  remained  childless,  the  nation  was  encour¬ 
aged  by  the  hope  that  James’  daughter  Mary  might  succeed  him. 
She  was  known  to  be  a  decided  Protestant,  and  she  had  married 
William,  Prince  of  Orange,  the  head  of  the  Protestant  Republic  of 
Holland.  But  the  birth  of  a  son  to  James  (1688)  put  an  end  to  that 
hope.  Immediately  a  number  of  leading  Whigs  and  Tories  (§§531, 
542)  united  in  sending  an  invitation  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  to  come 
over  to  England  with  an  army  to  protect  Parliament  against  the  King 
backed  by  his  standing  army. 

24.  William  and  Mary ;  Declaration  of  Right ;  Results  of  the 
Revolution.  — William  came  ;  James  fled  to  France.  A  Convention 
Parliament2  drew  up  a  Declaration  of  Right  which  declared  that  the 
King  had  abdicated,  and  which  therefore  offered  the  crown  to  William 
and  Mary  (§  546).  They  accepted.  Thus  by  the  bloodless  Revolu¬ 
tion  of  1 688  the  English  nation  transferred  the  sovereignty  to  those 
who  had  no  direct  legal  claim  to  it  so  long  as  James  and  his  son  were 
living  (§  542).  Hence  by  this  act  the  people  deliberately  set  aside 
hereditary  succession,  as  a  binding  rule,  and  revived  the  primitive 
English  custom  of  choosing  such  a  sovereign  as  they  deemed  best. 
In  this  sense  the  uprising  of  1688  was  most  emphatically  a  revolution 
(§§  544,  550).  It  made,  as  Green  has  said,  an  English  monarch  as 
much  the  creature  of  an  act  of  Parliament  as  the  pettiest  tax-gatherer 
in  his  realm.  But  it  was  a  still  greater  revolution  in  another  way, 
since  it  gave  a  death  blow  to  the  direct  “personal  monarchy,”  which 
began  with  the  Tudors  two  hundred  years  before.  It  is  true  that  in 
George  Ill’s  reign  we  shall  see  that  power  temporarily  revived,  but 
we  shall  never  hear  anything  more  of  that  Divine  Right  of  Kings, 
for  which  one  Stuart  “  lost  his  head,  and  another,  his  crown.”  Hence¬ 
forth  the  House  of  Commons  will  govern  England,  although,  as  we 
shall  see,  it  will  be  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  that  House 
will  be  able  to  free  itself  from  the  control  of  either  a  few  powerful 
families  on  the  one  hand,  or  that  of  the  Crown  on  the  other. 

25.  Bill  of  Rights ;  the  Commons  by  the  Revenue  and  the 
Mutiny  Act  obtain  Complete  Control  over  the  Purse  and  the  Sword. — 
In  order  to  make  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  people  unmistakably 

1  See  the  language  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  (Constitutional  Documents),  page  xxxi. 

2  Gonvention  Parliament :  it  was  so  called  because  it  was  not  regularly  summoned  by  the 
King,  —  he  having  fled  the  country. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


XX111 


clear,  the  Bill  of  Rights  (1689)— an  expansion  of  the  Declaration 
of  Right  —  was  drawn  up  (§  549).  The  Bill  of  Rights1  declared: 
1.  That  there  should  be  no  suspension  or  change  in  the  laws,  and 
no  taxation  except  by  act  of  Parliament.  2.  That  there  should  be 
freedom  of  election  to  Parliament  and  freedom  of  speech  in  Parlia¬ 
ment  (both  rights  that  the  Stuarts  had  attempted  to  control). 
3.  That  the  sovereign  should  not  keep  a  standing  army,  in  time  of 
peace,  except  by  consent  of  Parliament.  4.  That  in  future  no  Roman 
Catholic  should  sit  on  the  English  throne.  This  last  clause  was 
reaffirmed  by  the  Act  of  Settlement  (1701)  (§  549). 2 

This  most  important  bill,  having  received  the  signature  of  William 
and  Mary,  became  law.  It  constitutes  the  third  great  written  charter 
or  safeguard  of  English  liberty.  Taken  in  connection  with  Magna 
Carta  and  the  Petition  of  Right,  it  forms,  according  to  Lord  Chatham, 
“  the  Bible  of  English  liberty  ”  (§  549). 

But  Parliament  had  not  yet  finished  the  work  of  reform  it  had 
taken  in  hand.  The  executive  strength  of  every  government  depends 
on  its  control  of  two  powers, —  the  purse  and  the  sword.  Parliament 
had,  as  we  have  seen,  got  a  tight  grasp  on  the  first,  for  the  Commons, 
and  the  Commons  alone,  could  levy  taxes  ;  but  within  certain  very 
wide  limits,  the  personal  expenditure  of  the  sovereign  still  practically 
remained  unchecked.  Parliament  now  (1689)  took  the  decisive  step 
of  voting  by  the  Revenue  Act,  (1)  a  specific  sum  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  Crown,  and  (2)  of  voting  this  supply,  not  for  the  life  of  the 
sovereign,  as  had  been  the  custom,  but  for  four  years  (§  550).  A  little 
later  this  supply  was  fixed  for  a  single  year  only.  This  action  gave  to 
the  Commons  final  and  complete  control  of  the  purse  (§  632). 

Next,  Parliament  passed  the  Mutiny  Act  (1689)  (§  548),  which 
granted  the  king  power  to  enforce  martial  law  —  in  other  words,  to 
maintain  a  standing  army  —  for  one  year  at  a  time,  and  no  longer 
save  by  renewal  of  the  law.  This  act  gave  Parliament  complete 
control  of  the  sword,  and  thus  finished  the  great  work  ;  for  without 
the  annual  meeting  and  the  annual  vote  of  that  body,  an  English 
sovereign  would  at  the  end  of  a  twelvemonth  stand  penniless 
and  helpless. 

26.  Reforms  in  the  Courts  ;  the  Toleration  Act ;  the  Press  made 

Free. — The  same  year  (1689)  Parliament  effected  great  and  sorely 
needed  reforms  in  the  administration  of  justice  (§  544). 

Next,  Parliament  passed  the  Toleration  Act  (1689)  (§  548).  This 
measure  granted  liberty  of  worship  to  all  Protestant  Dissenters  except 
those  who  denied  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.3  The  Toleration  Act, 
however,  did  not  abolish  the  Corporation  Act  or  the  Test  Act,4  and 

1  Bill  of  Rights :  see  Constitutional  Documents,  page  xxxi. 

2  See,  too,  Constitutional  Documents,  page  xxxii. 

3  Freedom  of  worship  was  granted  to  Unitarians  in  1812. 

4  The  Act  of  Indemnity  of  1727  suspended  the  penalties  of  the  Test  and  the  Corporation 
acts;  they  were  both  repealed  in  1828. 


XXIV 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


it  granted  no  religious  freedom  to  Catholics.1  Still,  the  Toleration  Act 
was  a  step  forward,  and  it  prepared  the  way  for  that  absolute  liberty 
of  worship  and  of  religious  belief  which  now  exists  in  England. 

In  finance,  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary  was  marked  by  the 
practical  beginning  of  the  permanent  National  Debt  and  by  the 
establishment  of  the  Bank  of  England  (§  552). 

Now,  too  (1695),  the  English  press,  for  the  first  time  in  its  history, 
became  permanently  free  (§  550  [4]),  though  hampered  by  a  very  severe 
law  of  libel  and  by  stamp  duties.2  From  this  period  the  influence  of 
newspapers  continued  to  increase,  until  the  final  abolition  of  the  stamp 
duty  (1S55)  made  it  possible  to  issue  penny  and  even  half-penny 
papers  at  a  profit.  These  cheap  newspapers  sprang  at  once  into  an 
immense  circulation  among  all  classes,  and  thus  they  became  the 
power  for  good  or  evil,  according  to  their  character,  which  they  are 
to-day  ;  so  that  it  would  be  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  back  of  the 
power  of  Parliament  now  stands  the  greater  power  of  the  press. 

27.  The  House  of  Commons  no  longer  a  Representative  Body ; 
the  First  Two  Georges  and  their  Ministers.  —  But  now  that  the  Rev¬ 
olution  of  1688  had  done  its  work,  and  transferred  the  power  of  the 
Crown  to  the  House  of  Commons,  a  new  difficulty  arose.  That  was 
the  fact  that  the  Commons  did  not  represent  the  people,  but  stood 
simply  as  the  representative  of  a  small  number  of  rich  Whig  land- 
owners.3  In  many  towns  the  right  to  vote  was  confined  to  the  town 
officers  or  the  well-to-do  citizens.  In  other  cases,  towns  which  had 
dwindled  in  population  to  a  very  few  inhabitants  continued  to  have 
the  right  to  send  two  members  to  Parliament,  while  on  the  other 
hand  large  and  flourishing  cities  had  grown  up  which  had  no  power 
to  send  even  a  single  member  (§  623).  The  result  of  this  state  of 
things  was  that  the  wealthy  Whig  families  bought  up  the  votes  of 
electors,  and  so  regularly  controlled  the  elections  (§  597). 

Under  the  first  two  Georges,  both  of  whom  were  foreigners,  the 
ministers  —  especially  Robert  Walpole,  who  was  the  first  real  Prime 
Minister  of  England,  and  who  held  his  place  for  twenty  years  (1721- 
1  742)  —  naturally  stood  in  the  foreground.  They  understood  the  ins 
and  outs  of  English  politics,  while  the  two  German  sovereigns,  the 
first  of  whom  never  learned  to  speak  English,  neither  knew  nor  cared 
anything  about  them.  When  men  wanted  favors  or  offices,  they  went 
to  the  ministers  for  them  (§  587).  This  made  men  like  Walpole  so 
powerful  that  George  II  said  bitterly,  “In  England  the  ministers  are 
king”  (§583). 


1  Later,  very  severe  laws  were  enacted  against  the  Catholics ;  and  in  the  next  reign 
(Anne’s)  the  Act  of  Occasional  Conformity  and  the  Schism  Act  were  directed  against 
Protestant  Dissenters. 

2  Furthermore,  the  Corresponding  Societies’  Acts  (1793,  1799)  operated  for  a  time  as  a 
decided  check  on  the  freedom  of  the  press.  See  May's  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

3  The  influence  of  the  Whigs  had  secured  the  passage  of  the  Act  of  Settlement  which 
brought  in  the  Georges  ;  for  tins  reason  the  Whigs  had  gained  the  chief  political  power. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


XXV 


28.  George  Ill’s  Revival  of  “  Personal  Monarchy”  ;  the  “King’s 
Friends.”  —  George  III  was  born  in  England,  and  prided  himself 
on  being  an  Englishman.  He  came  to  the  throne  fully  resolved,  as 
Walpole  said,  “  to  make  his  power  shine  out,”  and  to  carry  out  his 
mother’s  constant  injunction  of,  “  George,  be  King!  ”  (§  597).  To  do 
this,  he  set  himself  to  work  to  trample  on  the  power  of  the  ministers, 
to  take  the  distribution  of  offices  and  honors  out  of  their  hands,  and 
furthermore  to  break  down  the  influence  of  the  great  Whig  families 
in  Parliament.  He  had  no  intention  of  reforming  the  House  of 
Commons,  or  of  securing  the  representation  of  the  people  in  it ;  his 
purpose  was  to  gain  the  control  of  the  House,  and  use  it  for  his  own 
ends.  In  this  he  was  thoroughly  conscientious,  according  to  his  idea 
of  right,  —  for  he  believed  with  all  his  heart  in  promoting  the  welfare 
of  England,  —  but  he  thought  that  welfare  depended  on  the  will  of 
the  King  much  more  than  on  that  of  the  nation.  His  maxim  was 
“  everything  for,  but  nothing  by,  the  people.”  By  liberal  gifts  of 
money, —  he  spent  ,£25,000  in  a  single  day  (1762)  in  bribes,1  — by 
gifts  of  offices  and  of  honors  to  those  who  favored  him,  and  by  taking 
away  offices,  honors,  and  pensions  from  those  who  opposed  him, 
George  III  succeeded  in  his  purpose.  He  raised  up  a  body  of  men 
in  Parliament,  known  by  the  significant  name  of  the  “  King’s 
Friends,”  who  stood  ready  at  all  times  to  vote  for  his  measures.  In 
this  way  he  actually  revived  “  personal  monarchy  ”  2  for  a  time,  and 
by  using  his  “  Friends”  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  in  the  Lords 
as  his  tools,  he  made  himself  quite  independent  of  the  checks  imposed 
by  the  constitution. 

29.  The  American  Revolution.  —  The  King’s  power  reached  its 
greatest  height  between  1770-1782.  He  made  most  disastrous  use  of 
it,  not  only  at  home,  but  abroad.  He  insisted  that  the  English  colo¬ 
nists  in  America  should  pay  taxes,  without  representation  in  Parlia¬ 
ment,  even  of  that  imperfect  kind  which  then  existed  in  Great  Britain. 
This  determination  brought  on  the  American  Revolution  —  called  in 
England  the  “  King’s  War  ”  (§§  598-601).  The  war,  in  spite  of  its 
ardent  support  by  the  “  King’s  Friends,”  roused  a  powerful  opposition 
in  Parliament.  Chatham,  Burke,  Fox,  and  other  able  men  protested 
against  the  King’s  arbitrary  course.  Finally  Dunning  moved  and 
carried  this  resolution  (1780)  in  the  Commons  :  “Resolved,  that  the 
power  of  the  Crown  has  increased,  is  increasing, "and  ought  to  be 
diminished  ”  (§  597).  This  vigorous  proposition  came  too  late  to 
affect  the  conduct  of  the  war,  and  England  lost  the  most  valuable  of 
her  colonial  possessions.  The  struggle,  which  ended  successfully  for 

1  Pitt  (Lord  Chatham)  was  one  of  the  few  public  men  of  that  day  who  would  neither  give 
nor  take  a  bribe ;  Walpole  declared  with  entire  truth  that  the  great  majority  of  politicians 
could  be  bought  —  it  was  only  a  question  of  price.  The  King  appears  to  have  economized 
in  his  living,  in  order  to  get  more  money  to  use  as  a  corruption  fund.  See  May’s  Constitu¬ 
tional  History. 

2  “  Personal  monarchy”:  see  §  15  of  this  Summary. 


XXVI 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


the  patriots  in  America,  was  in  reality  part  of  the  same  battle  fought 
in  England  by  other  patriots  in  the  halls  of  Parliament.  On  the 
western  side  of  the  Atlantic  it  resulted  in  the  establishment  of 
national  independence  ;  on  the  eastern  side,  in  the  final  overthrow 
of  royal  tyranny  and  the  triumph  of  the  constitution.  It  further¬ 
more  laid  the  foundation  of  that  just  and  generous  policy  on  the  part 
of  England  toward  her  other  colonies  which  has  made  her  mistress  of 
the  largest  and  most  prosperous  empire  on  the  globe.1 

30.  John  Wilkes  and  the  Middlesex  Elections ;  Publication  of 
Parliamentary  Debates.  —  Meanwhile  John  Wilkes  (§  604),  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  the  House  of  Commons,  had  gained  the  recognition  of  a  most 
important  principle.  He  was  a  coarse  and  violent  opponent  of  the 
royal  policy,  and  had  been  expelled  from  the  House  on  account  of  his 
bitter  personal  attack  on  the  King.2 3  Several  years  later  (1768)  he 
was  reelected  to  Parliament,  but  was  again  expelled  for  seditious 
libel ; 8  he  was  three  times  reelected  by  the  people  of  London  and 
Middlesex,  who  looked  upon  him  as  the  champion  of  their  cause  ; 
each  time  the  House  refused  to  permit  him  to  take  his  seat,  but  at 
the  fourth  election  he  was  successful.  A  few  years  later  (1782)  he 
induced  the  House  to  strike  out  from  its  journal  the  resolution  there 
recorded  against  him.4  Thus  Wilkes,  by  his  indomitable  persistency, 
succeeded  in  establishing  the  right  of  the  people  to  elect  the  candidate 
of  their  choice  to  Parliament.  During  the  same  period  the  people 
gained  another  great  victory  over  Parliament.  That  body  had  utterly 
refused  to  permit  the  debates  to  be  reported  in  the  newspapers.  But 
the  redoubtable  Wilkes  was  determined  to  obtain  and  publish  such 
reports  ;  rather  than  have  another  prolonged  battle  with  him,  Parlia¬ 
ment  conceded  the  privilege  (1771)  (§604).  The  result  was  that  the 
public  then,  for  the  first  time,  began  to  know  what  business  Parliament 
actually  transacted,  and  how  it  was  done.  This  fact,  of  course, 
rendered  the  members  of  both  Houses  far  more  directly  responsible 
to  the  will  of  the  people  than  they  had  ever  been  before.5 * * 

31.  The  Reform  Bills  of  1832,  1867,  1884;  Demand  for  “Man¬ 
hood  Suffrage.” —  But  notwithstanding  this  decided  political  progress, 
still  the  greatest  reform  of  all  —  that  of  the  system  of  electing  mem¬ 
bers  of  Parliament  —  still  remained  to  be  accomplished.  Cromwell 
had  attempted  it  (1654),  but  the  Restoration  put  an  end  to  the  work 
which  the  Protector  had  so  wisely  begun.  Lord  Chatham  felt  the 
necessity  so  strongly  that  he  had  not  hesitated  to  declare  ( 1 766) 

1  The  area  of  the  British  Empire  in  1901  was  nearly  12,000,000  square  miles. 

2  In  No.  45  of  the  North  Briton  (1763)  Wilkes  rudely  accused  the  King  of  having  delib¬ 
erately  uttered  a  falsehood  in  his  speech  to  Parliament. 

3  The  libel  was  contained  in  a  letter  written  to  the  newspapers  by  Wilkes. 

4  The  resolution  was  finally  stricken  out,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  ‘‘subversive  of  the 
rights  of  the  whole  body  of  electors.” 

5  The  publication  of  Division  Lists  (equivalent  to  Yeas  and  Nays)  by  the  House  of  Com¬ 

mons ‘in  1836  and  by  the  Lords  in  1857  completed  this  work.  Since  then  the  public  have 

known  how  each  member  of  Parliament  votes  on  every  important  question. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  SUMMARY 


XXVU 


that  the  system  of  representation  —  or  rather  misrepresentation  — 
which  then  existed  was  the  “rotten  part  of  the  constitution.”  “If 
it  does  not  drop,”  said  he,  “it  must  be  amputated.”  Later  (1770), 
he  became  so  alarmed  at  the  prospect  that  he  declared  that  “  before 
the  end  of  the  century  either  the  Parliament  will  reform  itself  from 
within,  or  be  reformed  from  without  with  a  vengeance.” 

But  the  excitement  caused  by  the  French  Revolution  and  the  wars 
with  Napoleon,  not  only  prevented  any  general  movement  of  reform, 
but  made  it  possible  to  enact  the  Six  Acts  and  other  stringent 
laws  against  agitation  in  that  direction  (§  616).  Finally,  however, 
the  unrepresented  millions  rose  in  their  might  (§§623-625),  and  by 
terrible  riots  made  it  evident  that  it  would  be  dangerous  for  Parlia¬ 
ment  to  postpone  action  on  their  demands.  The  Reform  Bill  — 
the  “Great  Charter  of  1832”  —  swept  away  the  “rotten  boroughs,” 
which  had  disgraced  the  country.  It  granted  the  right  of  election 
to  many  large  towns  which  had  hitherto  been  unable  to  send  mem¬ 
bers  to  Parliament,  and  it  placed  representation  on  a  broader, 
healthier,  and  more  equitable  basis  than  had  ever  existed  before. 
It  was  a  significant  fact  that  when  the  first  reformed  Parliament 
met,  composed  largely  of  Liberals,  it  showed  its  true  spirit  by 
abolishing  slavery  in  the  West  Indies.  It  was  followed  by  the 
Municipal  Reform  Act  of  1835  (§  640).  Later  (1848),  the  Chartists 
advocated  further  reforms  (§  634),  most  of  which  have  since  been 
adopted. 

In  1867  an  act  (§640),  scarcely  less  important  than  that  of  1832, 
broadened  representation  still  further  ;  and  in  1884  the  franchise 
was  again  extended  (§  640).  A  little  later  (1888)  the  County 
Council  Act  reconstructed  the  local  self-government  of  the  country 
in  great  measure.1  It  was  supplemented  in  1894  by  the  Parish 
Council  Act.  The  cry  is  now  for  unrestricted  “  manhood  suffrage,” 
on  the  principle  of  “one  man  one  vote  ” 2  —  woman  suffrage  in  a 
limited  degree  already  exists  (§  640). 

32.  Extension  of  Religious  Liberty;  Admission  of  Catholics  and 
Jews  to  Parliament ;  Free  Trade.  —  Meanwhile  immense  progress 
was  made  in  extending  the  principles  of  religious  liberty  to  all  bodies 
of  believers.  After  nearly  three  hundred  years  (or  since  the  second 
Act  of  Supremacy,  1559),  Catholics  were  (1830)  admitted  to  the 
House  of  Commons  ;  and  in  the  next  generation  (1858)  Jews  were 
likewise  admitted.  Recent  legislation  (the  Oaths  Act  of  1888) 
makes  it  impossible  to  exclude  any  one  on  account  of  his  religious 
belief  or  unbelief. 


1  The  “Local  Government”  Act:  this  gives  to  counties  the  management  of  their  local 
affairs  and  secures  uniformity  of  method  and  of  administration. 

2  That  is,  the  abolition  of  certain  franchise  privileges  springing  from  the  possession  of 
landed  property  in  different  counties  or  parliamentary  districts  by  which  the  owner  of  such 
property  is  entitled  to  cast  more  than  one  vote  for  a  candidate  for  Parliament. 


XXV111  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Commercially  the  nation  has  made  equal  progress.  The  barbarous 
Corn  Laws  (§§  635,  636)  were  repealed  in  1848,  the  narrow  protective 
policy  of  centuries  abandoned;  and  since  that  period  England  has 
practically  taken  its  stand  on  unlimited  free  trade  with  all  countries. 

33.  Condition  of  Ireland ;  Reform  in  the  Land  and  the  Church 
Laws;  Civil-Service  Reform;  Education;  Conclusion.  —  In  one 
direction,  however,  there  had  been  no  advance.  Following  the 
example  of  Scotland  (§  562),  Ireland  was  politically  united  to  Great 
Britain  (§  609) ;  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  when  the  first  Imperial 
Parliament  met  (1801 ),  but  long  after  the  Irish  Catholics  had  obtained 
the  right  of  representation  in  Parliament,  they  were  compelled  to  sub¬ 
mit  to  unjust  land  laws,  and  also  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the 
Established  (Protestant)  Church  in  Ireland.  Finally,  through  the 
efforts  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and  others,  this  branch  of  the  Church  was 
disestablished  (1869)  (§  641);  later  (1870  and  1881),  important 
reforms  were  effected  in  the  Irish  land  laws  (§§  642,  644). 

To  supplement  the  great  electoral  reforms  which  had  so  widely 
extended  the  power  of  the  popular  vote,  two  other  measures  were  now 
carried.  One  was  that  of  Civil-Service  Reform  (1870),  which  opened 
all  clerkships  and  similar  positions  in  the  gift  of  the  Government  to 
the  free  competition  of  candidates,  without  regard  to  their  political 
opinions  (§  648).  This  did  away  with  most  of  that  demoralizing 
system  of  favoritism  which  makes  government  offices  the  spoils  by 
which  successful  political  parties  reward  “  little  men  for  little 
services.”  The  “  secret  ballot,”  another  measure  of  great  importance, 
followed  (1872)  (§648). 

The  same  year  (1870)  England,  chiefly  through  Mr.  Forster’s 
efforts,  took  up  the  second  measure,  the  question  of  national  educa¬ 
tion.  The  conviction  gained  ground  that  if  the  working  classes  are 
to  vote,  then  they  must  not  be  allowed  to  remain  in  ignorance — the 
nation  declared  “  we  must  educate  our  future  masters.”  In  this  spirit 
a  system  of  elementary  government  schools  was  established,  which 
gives  instruction  to  tens  of  thousands  of  children  who  hitherto  were 
forced  to  grow  up  without  its  advantages  (§  641).  These  schools  are 
not  yet  wholly  free,  although  the  legislation  of  1891-1894  practically 
puts  most  of  them  on  that  basis. 

England  now  has  a  strong  and  broad  foundation  of  political 
suffrage  and  national  education. 

The  celebration  of  the  late  Queen’s  “Diamond  Jubilee”  in  1897 
seemed  to  point  toward  the  closer  union  of  the  English  colonies  with 
the  mother-country.  Such  an  “  imperial  federation  ”  would,  of  course, 
give  the  British  Empire  new  meaning  and  new  power  (§  656). 

Under  King  Edward  VII  England  stands  a  monarchy  in  name, 
but  a  republic  in  fact ;  a  sovereign  reigns,  but  the  people  rule.  The 
future  is  in  their  hands. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  DOCUMENTS 


Abstract  of  the  Articles  of  Magna  Carta  (1215).  — i.  “The  Church  of  England 
shall  be  free,  and  have  her  whole  rights,  and  her  liberties  inviolable.”  The  freedom  of  elec¬ 
tions  of  ecclesiastics  by  the  Church  is  confirmed.  2-8.  Feudal  rights  guaranteed,  '-•* J  mouses 
remedied.  9-1 1.  Treatment  of  debtors  alleviated.  12.  “  No  scutes"  *"  L except  the  three 

customary  feudal  aids ]  shall  be  imposed  ***  ^in-gaom,  unless  by  the  Common  Council 
oj  tlie  r eul hi."  1  ij.  London,  and  all  towns,  to  have  their  ancient  liberties.  14.  The  King 
binds  himself  to  summon  the  Common  Council  of  the  realm  respecting  the  assessing  of  an 
aid  {except  as  provided  in  12 )  or  a  scutage. 1  15,  16.  Guarantee  of  feudal  rights  to  tenants. 

17-19.  Provisions  respecting  holding  certain  courts.  20,  21.  Of  amercements.  They  are 
to  be  proportionate  to  the  offence ,  and  imposed  according  to  the  oath  of  honest  men  in 
the  neighborhood.  No  amercement  to  touch  the  necessary  means  of  subsiste?ice  of  a 
free  man ,  the  merchandise  of  a  merchant ,  or  the  agricultural  tools  of  a  villein ;  earls 
and  barons  to  be  amerced  by  their  equals.  23-34.  Miscellaneous,  minor  articles. 
35.  Weights  and  measures  to  be  uniform.  36.  Nothing  shall  be  given  or  taken ,  for  the 
future ,  for  the  Writ  of  Inquisition  of  life  or  limb ,  but  it  shall  be  freely  granted,  and  not 
denied .2  37,38.  Provisions  respecting  land-tenure  and  trials  at  law.  39.  “No  freeman 

SHALL  BE  TAKEN  OR  IMPRISONED,  OR  DISSEIZED,  OR  OUTLAWED,  OR  BANISHED,  OR  ANY 
WAYS  DESTROYED,  NOR  WILL  WE  PASS  UPON  HIM,  NOR  WILL  WE  SEND  UPON  HIM,  UNLESS  BY 
THE  LAWFUL  JUDGMENT  OF  HIS  PEERS,  OR  BY  THE  LAW  OF  THE  LAND.”  40.  “We  WILL 
SELL  TO  NO  MAN,  WE  WILL  NOT  DENY  TO  ANY  MAN,  EITHER  JUSTICE  OR  RIGHT.”  41,  42.  Pro¬ 
visions  respecting  merchants,  and  freedom  of  entering  and  quitting  the  realm,  except  in  war 
time.  43-46.  Minor  provisions.  47,  48.  Provisions  disafforesting  all  forests  seized  by  John, 
and  guaranteeing  forest  rights  to  subjects.  49-60.  Various  minor  provisions.  62.  Provision 
for  carrying  out  the  charter  by  the  barons  in  case  the  King  fails  in  the  performance  of  his 
agreement.  63.  The  freedom  of  the  Church  reaffirmed.  Every  one  in  the  kingdom  to  have 
and  hold  his  liberties  and  rights. 

“  Given  under  our  hand,  in  the  presence  of  the  witnesses  above  named,  and  many  others, 
in  the  meadow  called  Runnymede  between  Windsor  and  Staines,  the  15th  day  of  June,  in  the 
17th  of  our  reign.”  [Here  is  appended  the  King’s  seal.] 

Confirmation  of  the  Charters  by  Edward  I  (1297).  — In  1297  Edward  I  confirmed 
Magna  Carta  and  the  Forest  Charter  granted  by  Henry  III  in  1217  by  letters  patent.  The 
document  consists  of  seven  articles,  of  which  the  following,  namely,  the  sixth  and  seventh, 
are  the  most  important. 

_  6.  Moreover  we  have  granted  for  us  and  our  heirs,  as  well  to  archbishops,  bishops,  abbots, 
priors,  and  other  folk  of  holy  Church,  as  also  to  earls,  barons,  and  to  all  the  commonalty  of 
the  land,  that  for  no  business  from  henceforth  will  we  take  such  manner  of  aids ,  tasks ,  nor 
prises  but  by  the  common  consent  of  the  realm ,  and  for  the  common  profit  thereof,  saving 
the  ancient  aids  and  prises  due  and  accustomed. 

7.  And  for  so  much  as  the  more  part  of  the  commonalty  of  the  realm  find  themselves  sore 
grieved  with  the  maletote  [i.e. ,  an  unjust  tax  or  duty]  of  wools,  that  is  to  wit,  a  toll  of  forty 
shillings  for  every  sack  of  wool,  and  have  made  petition  to  us  to  release  the  same;  we,  at 
their  requests,  have  clearly  released  it,  and  have  granted  for  us  and  our  heirs  that  we  shall 
not  take  such  thing  nor  any  other  without  their  common  assent  and  good  will ;  saving  to  us 
and  our  heirs  the  custom  of  wools,  skins,  and  leather,  granted  before  by  the  commonalty 
aforesaid.  In  witness  of  which  things  we  have  caused  these  our  letters  to  be  made  patents. 
Witness  Edward  our  son,  at  London,  the  10th  day  of  October,  the  five-and-twentieth  of  our 
reign. 

And  be  it  remembered  that  this  same  Charter,  in  the  same  terms,  word  for  word,  was 
sealed  in  Flanders  under  the  King’s  Great  Seal,  that  is  to  say,  at  Ghent,  the  5th  day  of  Novem¬ 
ber,  in  the  25th  year  of  the  reign  of  our  aforesaid  Lord  the  King,  and  sent  into  England. 

THE  PETITION  OF  RIGHT 

June  7,  1628 

The  Petition  exhibited  to  His  Majesty  by  the  Lords  Spiritual  a?id  Temporal,  and 

Commons  in  this  present  Parliament  assembled,  concerning  divers  Rights  and  Lib¬ 
erties  of  the  Subjects ,  with  the  King's  Majesty's  Royal  Answer  thereunto  in  full 

Parliament. 

To  The  King’s  Most  Excellent  Majesty:  Humbly  show  unto  our  Sovereign  Lord 
the  King,  the  Lords  Spiritual  and  Temporal,  and  Commons  in  Parliament  assembled,  that 
whereas  it  is  declared  and  enacted  by  a  statute  made  in  the  time  of  the  reign  of  King  Edward 

1  These  important  articles  were  omitted  when  Magna  Carta  was  reissued  in  12x6  by  Henry  III.  Stubbs 
says  they  were  never  restored  ;  but  Edward  I,  in  his  Confirmation  of  the  Charters,  seems  to  reaffirm  them. 
See  the  Confirmation  ;  see  also  Gneist’s  Eng.  Const.,  II,  9. 

2  This  article  is  regarded  by  some  authorities  as  the  prototype  of  the  statute  of  Habeas  Corpus ;  others 
consider  that  it  is  implied  in  Articles  39-40. 


XXX 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


the  First,  commonly  called  Statutum  de  Tallagio  non  conceden do,1  that  no  tallage  [here, 
a  tax  levied  by  the  King  upon  the  lands  of  the  crown,  and  upon  all  royal  towns]  or  aid  shall 
Dc  nr  levied  by  the  King  or  his  heirs  in  this  realm,  without  the  goodwill  and  assent  of 
the  Archbisnopa,  p;chons.  Earls,  Barons,  Knights,  Burgesses,  and  other  the  freemen  of  the 
commonalty  of  this  realm:  ana  uy  «»*iy»rity  of  Parliament  holden  in  the  five  and  twentieth 
year  of  the  reign  of  King  Edward  the  Third,  it  is  deciai^a  onaotofl,  tKrxt  from  tKonccful  ill 
no  person  shall  be  compelled  to  make  any  loans  to  the  King  against  his  will,  because  such 
loans  were  against  reason  and  the  franchise  of  the  land ;  and  by  other  laws  of  this  realm  it  is 
provided,  that  none  should  be  charged  by  any  charge  or  imposition,  called  a  Benevolence,  or 
by  such  like  charge,  by  which  the  statutes  before-mentioned,  and  other  the  good  laws  and 
statutes  of  this  realm,  your  subjects  have  inherited  this  freedom,  that  they  should  not  be 
compelled  to  contribute  to  any  tax,  tallage,  aid,  or  other  like  charge,  not  set  by  common 
consent  in  Parliament. 

Yet  nevertheless,  of  late  divers  commissions  directed  to  sundry  Commissioners  in  several 
counties  with  instructions  have  issued ;  by  means  whereof  your  people  have  been  in  divers 
places  assembled,  and  required  to  lend  certain  sums  of  money  unto  your  Majesty,  and  many 
of  them  upon  their  refusal  so  to  do,  have  had  an  oath  administered  unto  them,  not  warrantable 
by  the  laws  or  statutes  of  this  realm,  and  have  been  constrained  to  become  bound  to  make 
appearance  and  give  attendance  before  your  Privy  Council,  and  in  other  places,  and  others  of 
them  have  been  therefore  imprisoned,  confined,  and  sundry  other  ways  molested  and  dis¬ 
quieted  :  and  divers  other  charges  have  been  laid  and  levied  upon  your  people  in  several 
counties,  by  Lords  Lieutenants,  Deputy  Lieutenants,  Commissioners  for  Musters,  Justices 
of  Peace  and  others,  by  command  or  direction  from  your  Majesty  or  your  Privy  Council, 
against  the  laws  and  free  customs  of  this  realm : 

And  where  also  by  the  statute  called,  “  The  Great  Charter  of  the  Liberties  of  England,” 
it  is  declared  and  enacted,  that  no  freeman  may  be  taken  or  imprisoned  or  be  disseised  of 
his  freeholds  or  liberties,  or  his  free  customs,  or  be  outlawed  or  exiled;  or  in  any  manner 
destroyed,  but  by  the  lawful  judgment  of  his  peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the  land: 

And  in  the  eight  and  twentieth  year  of  the  reign  of  King  Edward  the  Third,  it  was 
declared  and  enacted  by  authority  of  Parliament,  that  no  man  of  what  estate  or  condition  that 
he  be,  should  be  put  out  of  his  lands  or  tenements,  nor  taken,  nor  imprisoned,  nor  disherited, 
nor  put  to  death,  without  being  brought  to  answer  by  due  process  of  law: 

Nevertheless,  against  the  tenor  of  the  said  statutes,  and  other  the  good  laws  and 
statutes  of  your  realm,  to  that  end  provided,  divers  of  your  subjects  have  of  late  been 
imprisoned  without  any  cause  showed,  and  when  for  their  deliverance  they  were  brought 
before  your  Justices,  by  your  Majesty’s  writs  of  Habeas  Corpus,  there  to  undergo  and 
receive  as  the  Court  should  order,  and  their  keepers  commanded  to  certify  the  causes  of 
their  detainer ;  no  cause  was  certified,  but  that  they  were  detained  by  your  Majesty's  special 
command,  signified  by  the  Lords  of  your  Privy  Council,  and  yet  were  returned  back  to 
several  prisons,  without  being  charged  with  anything  to  which  they  might  make  answer 
according  to  lawr: 

And  whereas  of  late  great  companies  of  soldiers  and  mariners  have  been  dispersed  into 
divers  counties  of  the  realm,  and  the  inhabitants  against  their  wills  have  been  compelled  to 
receive  them  into  their  houses,  and  there  to  suffer  them  to  sojourn,  against  the  laws  and 
customs  of  this  realm,  and  to  the  great  grievance  and  vexation  of  the  people : 

And  whereas  also  by  authority  of  Parliament,  in  the  25th  year  of  the  reign  of  King  Edward 
the  Third,  it  is  declared  and  enacted,  that  no  man  shall  be  forejudged  of  life  or  limb  against 
the  form  of  the  Great  Charter,  and  the  law  of  the  land:  and  by  the  said  Great  Charter  and 
other  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  your  realm, no  man  ought  to  be  adjudged  to  death;  but  by 
the  laws  established  in  this  your  realm,  either  by  the  customs  of  the  same  realm  or  by  Acts 
of  Parliament :  and  whereas  no  offender  of  what  kind  soever  is  exempted  from  the  proceedings 
to  be  used,  and  punishments  to  be  inflicted  by  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  your  realm : 
nevertheless  of  late  divers  commissions  under  your  Majesty’s  Great  Seal  have  issued  forth, 
by  which  certain  persons  have  been  assigned  and  appointed  Commissioners  with  power  and 
authority  to  proceed  within  the  land,  according  to  the  justice  of  martial  law  against  such 
soldiers  and  mariners,  or  other  dissolute  persons  joining  with  them,  as  should  commit  any 
murder,  robbery,  felony,  mutiny,  or  other  outrage  or  misdemeanour  whatsoever,  and  by  such 
summary  course  and  order,  as  is  agreeable  to  martial  law,  and  is  used  in  armies  in  time  of 
war,  to  proceed  to  the  trial  and  condemnation  of  such  offenders,  and  them  to  cause  to  be 
executed  and  put  to  death,  according  to  the  law  martial : 

By  pretext  whereof,  some  of  your  Majesty’s  subjects  have  been  by  some  of  the  said  Com¬ 
missioners  put  to  death,  when  and  where,  if  by  the  laws  and  statutes  of  the  land  they  had 
deserved  death,  by  the  same  laws  and  statutes  also  they  might,  and  by  no  other  ought  to 
have  been,  adjudged  and  executed. 


1  A  Statute  concerning  Tallage  not  granted  by  Parliament.  This  is  now  held  not  to  have  been  a 
statfite.  See  Gardiner's  Documents  of  the  Puritan  Revolution,  page  1.  It  is  considered  by  Stubbs 
an  unauthorized  and  imperfect  abstract  of  Edward  I’s  Confirmation  of  the  Charters  —  which  see. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  DOCUMENTS  X*xi 


And  also  sundry  grievous  offenders  by  colour  thereof,  claiming  an  exemption,  have 
escaped  the  punishments  due  to  them  by  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  your  realm,  by  reason 
that  divers  of  your  officers  and  ministers  of  justice  have  unjustly  refused,  or  forborne  to 
proceed  against  such  offenders  according  to  the  same  laws  and  statutes,  upon  pretence 
that  the  said  offenders  were  punishable  only  by  martial  law,  and  by  authority  of  such  com¬ 
missions  as  aforesaid,  which  commissions,  and  all  other  of  like  nature,  are  wholly  and  directly 
contrary  to  the  said  laws  and  statutes  of  this  your  realm  : 

They  do  therefore  humbly  pray  your  Most  Excellent  Majesty,  ihat  710  man  hereafter 
be  compelled  to  make  or  yield  any  gift ,  loan,  benevolence ,  tax,  or  such  like  charge ,  with¬ 
out  common  coTise/it  by  Act  of  Parliament ;  and  that  no7ie  be  called  to  make  a7tswer ,  or 
take  suck  oath ,  or  to  give  attendance,  or  be  confined ,  or  otherwise  molested  or  disquieted 
concerning  the  same,  or  for  refusal  thereof ;  and  that  710  freeman ,  in  any  such  manner 
as  is  before-mentioned,  be  imprisoned  or  detained ;  atid  that  your  Majesty  will  be  pleased 
to  remove  the  said  soldiers  and  mariners ,  atid  that  your  people  may  7iot  be  so  burdened 
in  time  to  come  ;  a7id  that  the  foresaid  commissions  for  proceeding  by  martial  law  may 
be  revoked  a?id  annulled ;  and  that  hereafter  no  commissions  of  like  nature  may  issue 
forth  to  a?iy  person  or  persons  whatsoever ,  to  be  executed  as  aforesaid,  lest  by  colour  of 
them  any  of  your  Majesty's  subjects  be  destroyed  or  put  to  death ,  co7itrary  to  the  laws 
a7id  franchise  of  the  la7id. 

All  which  they  most  humbly  pray  of  your  Most  Excellent  Majesty,  as  their  rights  and 
liberties  according  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  realm :  and  that  your  Majesty  would  also 
vouchsafe  to  declare,  that  the  awards,  doings,  and  proceedings  to  the  prejudice  of  your  people, 
in  any  of  the  premises,  shall  not  be  drawn  hereafter  into  consequence  or  example  :  and  that 
your  Majesty  would  be  also  graciously  pleased,  for  the  further  comfort  and  safety  of  your 
people,  to  declare  your  royal  will  and  pleasure,  that  in  the  things  aforesaid  all  your  officers 
and  ministers  shall  serve  you,  according  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  realm,  as  they  tender 
the  honour  of  your  Majesty,  and  the  prosperity  of  this  kingdom. 

[Which  Petition  being  read  the  2d  of  June,  1628,  the  King  gave  the  following  evasive  and 
unsatisfactory  answer,  instead  of  the  usual  one,  given  below.] 

The  King  willeth  that  right  be  done  according  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  realm  :  and 
that  the  statutes  be  put  in  due  execution,  that  his  subjects  may  have  no  cause  to  complain  of 
any  wrong  or  oppressions,  contrary  to  their  just  rights  and  liberties,  to  the  preservation 
whereof  he  holds  himself  as  well  obliged  as  of  his  prerogative. 

On  June  7  the  King  decided  to  make  answer  in  the  accustomed  form,  So  it  droit  fait 
cotnme  est  dlsirl.  [Equivalent  to  the  form  of  royal  assent,  “  Le  roi  (or  la  reine)  le  veult.” 
See  page  373,  note  1.  On  the  Petition  of  Right,  see  Hallam  and  compare  Gardiner’s 
“  England”;  and  his  “  Documents  of  the  Puritan  Revolution.”] 

The  Bill  of  Rights  (1689). — This  Bill  consists  of  thirteen  Articles,  of  which  the  fol¬ 
lowing  is  an  abstract.  It  begins  by  stating  that  “  Whereas  the  late  K mg  James  II,  by  the 
advice  of  divers  evil  counsellors ,  judges,  and  ministers  employed  by  him ,  did  etideavor 
to  subvert  atid  extirpate  the  Protestant  religion,  atid  the  la7us  and  liberties  of  this  King¬ 
dom 1.  By  dispensing  with  and  suspending  the  laws  without  consent  of  Parliament.  2.  By 
prosecuting  worthy  bishops  for  humbly  petitioning  him  to  be  excused  for  concurring  in  the 
same  assumed  power.  3.  By  erecting  a  High  Commission  Court.  4.  By  levying  money 
without  consent  of  Parliament.  5.  By  keeping  a  standing  army  in  time  of  peace  without 
consent  of  Parliament.  6.  By  disarming  Protestants  and  arming  Papists.  7.  By  violating 
the  freedom  of  elections.  8.  By  arbitrary  and  illegal  prosecutions.  9.  By  putting  corrupt 
and  unqualified  persons  on  juries.  10.  By  requiring  excessive  bail.  11.  By  imposing  exces¬ 
sive  fines  and  cruel  punishments.  12.  By  granting  fines  and  forfeiture  against  persons  before 
their  conviction. 

It  is  then  declared  that  “  the  late  King  James  the  Second  having  abdicated  the  govern¬ 
ment,  and  the  throne  being  thereby  vacant,”  therefore  the  Prince  of  Orange  (“  whom  it  hath 
pleased  Almighty  God  to  make  the  glorious  instrument  of  delivering  their  kingdom  from 
Popery  and  arbitrary  power”)  did  by  the  advice  of  “  the  Lords  Spiritual  and  Temporal,  and 
divers  principal  persons  of  the  Commons”  summon  a  Convention  Parliament. 

This  Convention  Parliament  declares,  that  the  acts  above  enumerated  are  contrary  to  law. 
They  then  bestow  the  Crown  on  William  and  Mary  —  the  sole  regal  power  to  be  vested  only 
in  the  Prince  of  Orange  —  and  provide  that  after  the  decease  of  William  and  Mary  the 
Crown  shall  descend  “  to  the  heirs  of  the  body  of  the  said  Princess;  and,  for  default  of  such 
issue,  to  the  Princess  Anne  of  Denmark  1  and  the  heirs  of  her  body ;  and  for  default  of  such 
issue,  to  the  heirs  of  the  body  of  the  said  Prince  of  Orange.” 

Here  follow  new  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy  in  lieu  of  those  formerly  required. 

The  subsequent  articles  are  as  follows:  IV.  Recites  the  acceptance  of  the  Crown  by 
William  and  Mary.  V.  The  Convention  Parliament  to  provide  for  “  the  settlement  of  the 


1  The  Princess  Anne,  sister  of  the  Princess  Mary,  married  Prince  George  of  Denmark  in  1683;  hence 
she  is  here  styled  “  the  Princess  of  Denmark.” 


XXX11 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


religion,  laws  and  liberties  of  the  Kingdom.”  VI.  All  the  clauses  in  the  Bill  of  Rights  are 
“the  true,  ancient,  and  indubitable  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  of  this  Kingdom.” 
VII.  Recognition  and  declaration  of  William  and  Mary  as  King  and  Queen.  VIII.  Repeti¬ 
tion  of  the  settlement  of  the  Crown  and  limitations  of  the  succession.  IX.  Exclusion  from 
the  Crown  of  all  persons  holding  communion  with  the  “  Church  of  Rome  ”  or  who  “  profess 
the  Popish  religion  ”  or  who  “  shall  marry  a  Papist.”  X.  Every  King  or  Queen  hereafter 
succeeding  to  the  Crown  to  assent  to  the  Act  [i.e.  Disabling  Act  of  1678  (§  530)]  “  disabling 
Papists  from  sitting  in  either  House  of  Parliament.”  XI.  The  King  and  Queen  assent 
to  all  the  articles  of  the  Bill  of  Rights.  XII.  The  Dispensing  Power  (§  540)  abolished. 
XIII.  Exception  made  in  favor  of  charters,  grants,  and  pardons  made  before  October  23, 1689. 

The  Act  of  Settlement  (1 700-1 701). 1  —  Excludes  Roman  Catholics  from  succession  to 
the  Crown;  and  declares  that  if  a  Roman  Catholic  obtains  the  Crown,  “the  people  of  these 
realms  shall  be  and  are  thereby  absolved  of  their  allegiance.”  Settles  the  Crown  on  the 
Electress  Sophia,2  and  “  the  heirs  of  her  body  being  Protestants.”  Requires  the  sovereign  to 
join  in  communion  with  the  Church  of  England.  No  war  to  be  undertaken  in  defence  of  any 
territories  not  belonging  to  the  English  Crown  except  with  the  consent  of  Parliament.  Judges 
to  hold  their  office  during  good  behavior.  No  pardon  by  the  Crown  to  be  pleadable  against 
an  impeachment  by  the  House  of  Commons.  (See  §  549.) 

MISCELLANEOUS  ACTS  AND  LAWS 

I.  Bill  of  Attainder.  — This  was  a  bill  (which  might  in  itself  decree  sentence  of  death) 
passed  by  Parliament,  by  which,  originally,  the  blood  of  a  person  held  to  be  convicted  of 
treason  or  felony  was  declared  to  be  attainted  or  corrupted  so  that  his  power  to  inherit,  trans¬ 
mit,  or  hold  property  was  destroyed.  After  Henry  VII I's  reign  the  law  was  modified  so  as 
not  to  work  “  corruption  of  blood”  in  the  case  of  new  felonies.  Under  the  Stuarts,  Bills  of 
Attainder  were  generally  brought  only  in  cases  where  the  Commons  believed  that  impeach¬ 
ment  would  fail,  —  as  in  the  cases  of  Strafford  and  Laud.  It  should  be  noticed  that  in  an 
Impeachment  the  Commons  bring  the  accusation,  and  ihe  Lords  alone  act  as  judges;  but  that 
in  a  Bill  of  Attainder  the  Commons  —  that  is,  the  accusers  —  themselves  act  as  judges,  as  well 
as  the  Lords. 

II.  Statute  of  Praemunire  (lags'). — This  statute  was  enacted  to  check  the  power 
claimed  by  the  Pope  in  England  in  cases  which  interfered  with  power  claimed  by  the  King, 
as  in  appeals  made  to  the  Court  of  Rome  respecting  church  matters,  over  which  the  King's 
court  had  jurisdiction.  The  statute  received  its  name  from  the  writ  served  on  the  party  \vno 
had  broken  the  law  :  “  Pr&munire facias  A.  B.” ;  that  is,  “  Cause  A.  B.  to  be  forewarned” 
that  he  appear  before  us  to  answer  the  contempt  with  which  he  stands  charged.  Henry  VIII 
made  use  of  this  statute  in  order  to  compel  the  clergy  to  accept  his  supremacy  over  the 
English  Church.  (See  §§  317,  398,  400.) 

III.  Habeas  Corpus  Act  (1679).  — The  name  of  this  celebrated  statute  is  derived  from 
its  referring  to  the  opening  words  of  the  writ :  “ Habeas  Corpus  ad  subjiciendum  ”  (see  page 
273,  note  1).  Sir  James  Mackintosh  declares  that  the  essence  of  the  statute  is  contained  in 
clauses  39,  40  of  Magna  Carta  —  which  see.  The  right  to  Habeas  Corpus  was  conceded  by 
the  Petition  of  Right  and  also  by  the  Statute  of  1640.  But  in  order  to  better  secure  the  liberty 
of  the  subject  and  for  prevention  of  imprisonments  beyond  the  seas,  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act 
of  1679  was  enacted,  regulating  the  issue  and  return  of  writs  of  Habeas  Corpus. 

The  principal  provisions  of  the  Act  are:  1.  Jailers  (except  in  cases  of  commitment  for 
treason  or  felony)  must  within  three  days  of  the  reception  of  the  writ  produce  the  prisoner  in 
court,  unless  the  court  is  at  a  distance,  when  the  time  may  be  extended  to  twenty  days  at  the 
most.  2.  A  jailer,  refusing  to  do  this,  forfeits  ^100  for  the  first  offence,  and  £200  for  the 
second.  3.  No  one  set  at  liberty  upon  any  Habeas  Corpus  to  be  re-committed  for  the  same 
offence  except  by  the  court  having  jurisdiction  of  the  case.  4.  The  Act  not  to  apply  to  cases 
of  debt. 

IV.  The  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  (1164). — These  measures  (§216),  says  Bishop 
Stubbs,  were  “really  a  part  of  a  great  scheme  of  administrative  reform.”  They  were  drawn 
up  by  a  committee  of  bishops  and  barons,  with  the  Justiciar  or  Chief  Minister  at  the  head. 
The  object  of  the  Constitutions  was  “to  assert  the  supremacy  of  the  State  over  clergy  and 
laity  alike.”  They  limited  the  jurisdiction  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts ;  they  established  a  more 
uniform  system  of  justice  ;  ana,  in  certain  cases,  they  provided  for  a  kind  of  jury  trial.  (See 
Stubbs’  Constitutional  History,  I,  525;  or,  fora  brief  abstract  of  the  Constitutions,  see  Acland 
and  Ransomes  Political  History,  page  24.) 

1  This  act,  says  Taswell-Langmead,  is  “  the  Title  Deed  of  the  reigning  Dynasty,  and  a  veritable 
original  contract  between  the  Crown  and  the  People.” 

,  2  The  Electress  Sophia  was  the  granddaughter  of  James  I ;  she  married  the  Elector  of  Hanover,  and 
became  mother  of  George  I .  See  genealogical  table  of  Descent  of  the  English  Sovereigns  in  the  Appendix, 
page  xli. 


SUMMARY  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  DATES  IN  ENGLISH 
HISTORY  1 


[The  *  marks  the  most  important  dates.] 


I.  The  Prehistoric  Period 

The  Rough-Stone  Age. 

The  Polished-Stone  Age. 

Age  of  Bronze  begins,  1500  b.c.  ? 

II.  The  Roman  Period,  55,  54  b.c; 

A.D.  43-410 

*Csesar  lands  in  Britain,  55  and  54  b.c. 
Claudius  begins  the  conquest  of  Britain, 
A.D.  43. 

Revolt  of  Boadicea,  61. 

Agricola  builds  a  line  of  forts,  81. 

Hadrian’s  Wall,  121? 

*  Britain  abandoned  by  the  Romans,  410. 

III.  The  Saxon,  or  Early  English, 
Period,  449-1013;  1042-1066 

*The  Jutes  settle  in  Kent,  449. 

Ella  and  Cissa  found  the  kingdom  of  Sussex, 

477. 

Cerdic  founds  the  kingdom  of  Wessex,  495. 
The  Angles  settle  Northumbria,  547. 

*  Landing  of  Augustine ;  conversion  of  Kent, 

597. 

Church  council  at  Whitby,  664. 

First  landing  of  the  Danes  in  England,  789. 
^Egbert  (King  of  Wessex,  conquers  a  large 
part  of  the  country  (827),  and  takes  the 
title  of  “  King  of  the  English”),  828. 
Alfred  the  Great,  871. 

^Treaty  of  Wedmore,  878. 

Invasion  by  the  Danes  —  Danegeld  paid  by 
decree  of  the  Witan  for  the  first  time, 
991. 

IV.  Danish  Period,  1013-1042 

Sweyn,  the  Dane,  is  acknowledged  king  of 
the  English,  1013. 

Canute,  the  Dane,  chosen  king,  1017. 


Divides  England  into  four  exeat  earldoms, 

1017. 

Godwin  made  Earl  of  Wessex,  1020. 

V.  The  Saxon,  or  Early  English, 
Period  (restored),  1042-1066 

Edward  the  Confessor,  1042. 

Harold,  last  of  the  Saxon  kings,  1066. 

William  of  Normandy  lands  in  England; 
battle  of  Senlac,  or  Hastings  —  Harold 
killed  — Oct.  14,  1066. 

VI.  The  Norman  Period,  1066-1154 

William  (crowned  in  Westminster  Abbey 
on  Christmas  Day),  1066. 

Norman  system  of  feudal  land  tenure  begins 
to  be  regularly  organized,  1066? 

*William  grants  a  charter  to  London,  1066? 

William  harries  the  North,  1069. 

Reorganizes  the  Church,  1070. 

Establishes  separate  ecclesiastical  courts, 
1070? 

The  English,  under  Hereward,  finally  de¬ 
feated  at  Ely,  1071. 

William  invades  Scotland,  and  compels  the 
King  to  do  him  homage,  1072. 

William  refuses  to  become  subject  to  the 
Pope,  1076. 

*Domesday  Book  completed,  1086. — 
Reports :  Tenants-in-chief  (barons, 
bishops,  abbots),  about  1500;  Under¬ 
tenants  (chiefly  English  dispossessed  of 
their  estates),  about  8000;  Yeomen, 
north  of  Watling  St.,  about  35,000; 
Yeomen,  sunk  to  a  condition  border¬ 
ing  on  serfdom  (south  of  Watling  St.), 
about  90,000;  Villeins,  or  serfs,  about 
109,000;  Slaves,  about  25,000;  Citizens, 
monks,  nuns,  priests,  etc., about  1,732, - 
000 ;  Total  population,  about  2,000,000. 


Many  early  dates  are  approximate  only. 


XXXIV  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


*A11  the  landholders  of  England  swear  alle¬ 
giance  to  William,  at  Salisbury,  1086. 
William  Rufus,  1087. 

Suppresses  rebellion  of  the  barons,  1088. 
Makes  war  on  Normandy,  1090. 

Quarrel  with  Anselm  —  robs  Church  of  its 
revenue,  1094. 

Suppresses  second  rebellion  of  the  barons, 
1095. 

Henry  I,  1100. 

♦First  charter  of  liberties,  1100. 

Quarrels  with  Anselm  about  investitures, 

1103. 

Hattie  of  Tinchebrai  —  Normandy  con¬ 
quered,  1106. 

Henry  and  Anselm  come  to  terms,  1106. 
Stephen,  1135. 

Charter  of  liberties,  1135. 

Matilda,  d.  of  Henry  I,  claims  the  crown, 

1135. 

Battle  of  tlie  Standard,  1138. 

Civil  war  begins,  1139. 

Matilda’s  son  (Henry  II)  marries  Eleanor 
of  France,  and  acquires  her  provinces, 
1152. 

Treaty  of  Wallingford,  1153. 

VII.  The  Angevin,  or  Plantag- 
enet,  Period,  1154-1399 

Henry  II,  1154. 

♦Merchant  and  craft  guilds  become  promi¬ 
nent,  1154? 

♦Payment  of  scutage  regularly  established, 

1160. 

♦Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  1164. 

Quarrel  with  Becket,  1164. 

*Assize  of  Clarendon,  1166. 

Becket  murdered,  1170. 

♦Partial  conquest  of  Ireland,  1171. 

Henry’s  wife  and  sons  rebel,  1173. 

Henry  does  penance  at  Becket’s  tomb,  1 174. 
Rebellion  of  barons  suppressed,  1174. 
Assize  of  Northampton  (divides  England 
into  judicial  circuits),  1176. 

Assize  of  Arms  (regulates  national  militia), 
1181. 

Henry’s  sons  again  rebel,  1183. 

♦Saladin  Tithe  (first  tax  on  personal  prop¬ 
erty),  1188. 

♦Great  Assize  (substitutes  trial  by  jury  in 
civil  cases  for  trial  by  battle),  1188  ? 
Richard  I,  1189. 

Richard  persecutes  the  Jews,  sells  offices, 
extorts  money,  1189. 

♦Rjchard  grants  many  town  charters,  1189. 
Joins  the  third  crusade,  1190. 


Richard  taken  prisoner,  1192. 

England  ransoms  the  King,  1194. 

John,  1199. 

♦Loss  of  Normandy,  1204. 

John  refuses  to  receive  Archbishop  Lang- 
ton,  1208. 

The  kingdom  placed  under  an  interdict, 
1208. 

The  Pope  excommunicates  John,  1209. 

John  becomes  the  Pope’s  vassal,  1213. 

♦The  meeting  at  St.  Albans  (first  representa¬ 
tive  assembly  on  record)  to  consider 
measures  of  reform,  1213. 

Battle  of  Bouvines,  1214. 

♦The  Great  Charter  (Magna  Carta),  June  15, 
1215. 

The  Pope  refuses  to  recognize  the  Great 
Charter,  and  excommunicates  the  lead¬ 
ers  of  the  barons,  1215. 

The  barons  invite  Louis,  son  of  the  King  of 
France,  to  take  the  crown,  1215. 

War  between  John  and  the  barons,  1216. 

Henry  III,  1216. 

The  Mendicant  Friars  land  in  England, 

1221. 

♦Parliament  of  Merton  rejects  the  Canon 
Law,  1236. 

“The  Mad  Parliament”  draws  up  the  Pro¬ 
visions  of  Oxford,  1258. 

The  Barons’  War;  battle  of  Lewes,  1264. 

♦Walter  de  Merton  founds  Merton  College, 
Oxford  (beginning  of  the  collegiate  sys¬ 
tem),  1264. 

♦Rise  of  the  House  of  Commons  under  Earl 
Simon  de  Montfort,  1265. 

Battle  of  Evesham ;  Earl  Simon  killed, 
1265. 

Courts  of  Exchequer,  King’s  Bench,  and 
Common  Pleas  fully  organized,  1272? 

Edward  I,  1272. 

♦Statute  of  Mortmain,  1279. 

Conquest  of  Wales,  1282. 

Statute  of  Winchester,  1285. 

♦The  Statute  of  De  Donis,  or  Entail,  1285. 

The  Jews  expelled  from  England,  1290. 

Statute  of  Quia  Emptores  (increases  num¬ 
ber  of  small  freeholders  holding  directly 
from  the  Crown  or  great  lords),  1290. 

Alliance  between  Scotland  and  France 
against  England,  1294. 

♦First  complete  or  model  Parliament  (Lords, 
Clergy,  and  Commons :  subsequently 
the  clergy  usually  met  by  themselves 
in  convocation),  1295. 

War  with  Scotland,  1295-1296. 

Edward  seizes  the  wool  of  the  merchants 
(Maltote,  or  “  evil  tax”),  1297. 


PRINCIPAL  DATES  IN  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


XXXV 


♦Edward  confirms  the  charters,  1297. 

Consent  of  Parliament  established  as  neces¬ 
sary  to  taxation  (by  the  confirmation  of 
the  charters),  1297. 

Renewed  war  with  Scotland ;  execution  of 
Wallace;  defeat  of  Bruce,  1303-1306. 

Edward  II,  1307. 

Gaveston  dismissed,  1308. 

The  Lords  Ordainers  (to  regulate  the  king’s 
household),  1310. 

Gaveston  executed,  1312. 

Battle  of  Bannockburn,  1314. 

♦House  of  Commons  gains  a  share  in  legisla¬ 
tion,  1322. 

Roger  Mortimer  and  the  Queen  conspire 
against  Edward,  1326. 

The  Despensers  (King’s  favorites)  hanged, 

1326. 

The  King  deposed  and  murdered,  1327. 

Edward  HI,  1327. 

Independence  of  Scotland  recognized,  1328. 

♦House  of  Commons  (Knights  of  the  Shire 
and  Commons  united)  begin  to  sit  by 
themselves  as  a  distinct  body,  1333. 

Edward  takes  the  title  of  u  King  of  F ranee,” 
1337. 

♦Beginning  of  the  Hundred  Years’  War  with 
France,  1338  (see  1453). 

♦Woollen  manufacture  introduced  from  Flan¬ 
ders,  1339? 

♦Victory  of  Cr^cy  (cannon  first  used),  1346. 

♦Capture  of  Calais,  1347. 

Court  of  Chancery  finally  established,  1348. 

♦The  Black  Death,  1349. 

♦First  Statute  of  Laborers  (regulates  price 
of  labor,  etc.),  1349. 

First  Statute  of  Provisors  (limits  power  of 
Pope  in  England),  1351. 

First  Statute  of  Praemunire  (limits  power  of 
the  Pope  in  England),  1353  (see  1393). 

♦Victory  of  Poitiers,  1356. 

♦Treaty  of  Bretigny,  1360. 

♦The  House  of  Commons  gains  the  right  of 
impeaching  the  king’s  ministers,  1376. 

♦Wycliffe  begins  the  Reformation  (rise  of 
the  Lollards),  1377? 

Richard  II,  1377. 

♦Wycliffe  translates  the  Bible,  1378? 

♦Peasant  revolts  led  by  Wat  Tyler,  1381. 

♦The  Great  Statute  of  Praemunire  (see 
1353),  1393. 

♦Chaucer  begins  the  “Canterbury  Tales,” 

1390? 

Richard  deposed  (and,  later,  murdered), 

1399. 

♦Parliament  sets  aside  the  order  of  succession 
and  chooses  Henry  king,  1399. 


VIII.  The  Lancastrian  Period 
(Red  Rose),  1399-1461 

Henry  IV,  1399. 

Rebellion  of  Glendower,  1400. 

♦First  statute  punishing  heretics  with  death, 

1401. 

First  martyr  (William  Sawtrey)  under  the 
new  law,  1401. 

Revolt  of  the  Percies;  battle  of  Shrews¬ 
bury,  1403. 

♦The  House  of  Commons  obtains  the  ex¬ 
clusive  right  to  make  grants  of  money, 

1407. 

Henry  V,  1413. 

♦Statutes  to  be  made  by  Parliament  without 
alteration  by  the  king,  1414. 

Lollard  conspiracies,  1414-1415. 

♦Battle  of  Agincourt,  1415. 

♦Treaty  of  Troyes,  1420. 

Henry  VI,  1422  (crowned  King  of  England 
and  France). 

Siege  of  Orleans,  1428. 

♦County  suffrage  restricted,  1430. 

Joan  of  Arc  burned,  1431. 

♦Cade’s  insurrection,  1450. 

♦End  of  the  Hundred  Years’  War;  loss  of 
France,  1453  (see  1338). 

♦Wars  of  the  Roses,  1455-1485. 

Henry  dethroned,  1461. 

XI.  The  Yorkist  Period  (White 
Rose),  1461-1485 

Edward  IV,  1461. 

Queen  Margaret’s  son  killed  at  Tewkesbury 
and  the  Queen  imprisoned,  1471. 
Edward  exacts  “  benevolences,”  1475. 
♦Caxton  prints  the  first  book  in  England, 

1477. 

Edward  V,  1483. 

Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  appointed 
Protector,  1483. 

Murders  Edward  in  the  Tower  (?),  1483. 

Richard  III,  1483. 

Suppresses  rebellion,  1483. 
“Benevolences”  abolished,  1484  (see 
1475). 

♦Battle  of  Bosworth  Field,  1485. 

X.  The  Tudor  Period,  1485-1603 
Henry  VII,  1485. 

Henry  marries  Elizabeth  of  York,  thus 
uniting  the  houses  of  Lancaster  and 
York,  1486. 

Court  of  Star-Chamber  established,  1487. 


XXXVI 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Statutes  of  Livery  and  Maintenance  en¬ 
forced  by  Empson  and  Dudley,  1487. 

Poynings’  Act  (puts  an  end  to  the  legisla¬ 
tive  power  of  the  English  colony  in 
Ireland),  1494. 

♦The  Cabots  discover  the  American  conti¬ 
nent,  1497. 

Henry  VIII,  1509. 

♦Beginning  of  the  “  New  Learning*’  (Colet, 
Erasmus,  More),  1509. 

Battle  of  Flodden,  1513. 

Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  1520. 

The  Pope  confers  on  Henry  the  title  of 
“  Defender  of  the  Faith,”  1521. 

Henry  begins  divorce  suit  against  Catharine 
of  Aragon,  1529. 

Fall  of  Wolsey,  1529. 

Cranmer  obtains  the  opinions  of  the  Uni¬ 
versities,  1530. 

Clergy  compelled  to  acknowledge  Henry 
the  Head  of  the  English  Church,  1531. 

Appeals  to  Rome  forbidden,  1532. 

Henry  privately  marries  Anne  Boleyn, 

1533. 

Cranmer  pronounces  Henry's  marriage  with 
Catharine  void,  1533. 

♦Act  of  Supremacy  declares  the  king  Su¬ 
preme  Head  of  the  Church  of  England, 

1534. 

Fisher  and  More  executed,  1535. 

England  and  Wales  finally  united,  1536. 

♦Dissolution  of  the  monasteries  begins,  1536. 

The  Bible  translated  and  placed  in  the 
churches,  1536. 

Insurrection  in  the  North  (“Pilgrimage  of 
Grace”),  1537. 

The  king’s  Proclamations  to  have  the  force 
of  law,  1539  (repealed,  1547). 

The  abbots  cease  to  sit  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  1539. 

The  “  Six  Articles,”  1539. 

Edward  VI,  1547. 

Duke  of  Somerset  made  Protector  during 
Edward’s  minority,  1547. 

Battle  of  Pinkie,  1547. 

First  English  Prayer-Book,  1549. 

♦Act  of  Uniformity  (virtually  establishes 
Protestantism),  1549. 

The  Forty-Two  Articles  of  Religion  (after¬ 
ward  reduced  to  thirty-nine),  1552. 

Second  Act  of  Uniformity,  and  Second 
Prayer-Book,  1552. 

♦Many  Protestant  grammar  schools  and 
several  hospitals  founded  by  the  *King, 
1552-1553. 

Mary,  1553. 

Lady  Jane  Grey  proclaimed  queen,  1553. 


Edward’s  Laws,  establishing  Protestantism 
(repealed,  1553). 

Lady  Jane  Grey  executed,  1554. 

Mary  marries  Philip  II  of  Spain,  1554. 

Statutes  against  the  Pope  (since  1529) 
repealed ;  Catholicism  reestablished, 
1554. 

Severe  persecution  of  the  Protestants 
(Cranmer,  Ridley,  and  Latimer  burned), 
1555-1556. 

Loss  of  Calais,  1558. 

Elizabeth,  1558. 

Acts  of  Supremacy  and  Uniformity  reen¬ 
acted  (Protestantism  restored),  1559. 

The  Thirty-Nine  Articles  established,  1563. 

The  English  Puritans  begin  to  be  promi¬ 
nent,  157 1  ? 

High  Commission  Court  established,  1583. 

♦Raleigh  attempts  to  colonize  Virginia, 
1584. 

♦Shakespeare  at  the  Blackfriars  and  Globe 
Theatres  in  London,  1586? 

Execution  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  1587. 

♦Defeat  of  the  Armada,  1588. 

Establishment  of  the  East  India  Company, 
1600. 

First  regular  Poor  Law,  1601. 

Completion  of  the  conquest  of  Ireland, 
1603 

XI.  The  Stuart  Period  (First 
Part),  1603-1649 

James  I,  1603  (King  of  Scotland  and 
England). 

The  Millenary  Petition,  1603. 

Hampton  Court  Conference,  1604. 

James  proclaims  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings, 
1604? 

The  Gunpowder  Plot,  1605. 

Severe  laws  against  the  Catholics,  1606. 

♦Colony  founded  at  Jamestown,  Virginia, 
1607. 

Protestant  colonies  planted  in  Ulster,  Ire¬ 
land,  1611. 

♦Authorized  translation  of  the  Bible  com¬ 
pleted,  1611. 

Execution  of  Raleigh,  1618. 

♦Bacon  publishes  his  New  System  of  Phil¬ 
osophy,  1620. 

♦Harvey  discovers  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,  1620. 

♦The  Pilgrims  land  at  Plymouth,  New  Eng¬ 
land,  1620. 

Impeachment  of  Lord  Bacon,  1621. 

The  Commons  protest  against  the  King’s 
violation  of  their  liberties,  1621. 


PRINCIPAL  DATES  IN  ENGLISH  HISTORY  XXXV11 


James  tears  up  the  protest,  1621. 

Imprisons  members  of  Parliament,  1622. 
♦First  regular  newspaper  in  England,  1622. 
Charles  I,  1625. 

Parliament  demands  reforms,  and  refuses 
grants  of  money  unless  they  are  con¬ 
ceded,  1625. 

♦The  Petition  of  Right,  1628. 

Sir  John  Eliot  sent  to  the  Tower,  1626. 
Wentworth  (Strafford)  and  Laud  with  the 
policy  of  “  Thorough,”  1635. 
♦Hampden  refuses  to  pay  ship  money,  16157 . 
The  King  tries  to  force  a  liturgy  on  the 
Scottish  Church,  1637. 

The  “  Short  Parliament,”  1610. 

♦The  “Long  Parliament”  meets,  1640. 

The  Triennial  Act  (for  summoning  a  new 
Parliament  every  three  years),  1641. 
Parliament  resolves  not  to  be  adjourned  or 
dissolved  except  by  its  own  consent, 
1641. 

Abolishes  the  Star-Chamber  and  the  High 
Commission  Courts,  1641. 

Passes  statutes  against  ship  money  and 
other  illegal  measures  of  the  King, 

1641. 

The  Root  and  Branch  Bill,  1641. 

The  Grand  Remonstrance,  1641. 

The  King  attempts  to  seize  the  five  mem¬ 
bers,  1642. 

♦Beginning  of  the  Civil  War  (battle  of  Edge- 
hill),  1642. 

Cromwell  organizes  his  “  Ironsides,”  1642. 
♦Parliament  accepts  the  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant,  1643. 

The  Excise  Act,  1643. 

Battle  of  Marston  Moor,  1644. 

The  Self-Denying  Ordinance,  1644,  1645. 
The  “  New  Model”  army,  1645. 

Battle  of  Naseby,  1645. 

Pride’s  Purge,  1648. 

The  Rump  Parliament,  1648. 

♦Execution  of  the  King,  1646. 

XII.  The  Commonwealth  and  Pro¬ 
tectorate  Period,  1646-1660 

House  of  Lords  abolished,  1646  (meets 
next,  1660). 

The  Commonwealth,  or  Republic,  declared, 

1649. 

Charles  II  proclaimed  King  of  Scotland, 

1646. 

Many  Cavaliers  emigrate  to  Virginia,  1646  ? 
Cromwell’s  campaign  in  Ireland,  1646- 

1650. 

Battle  of  Dunbar,  1650. 


Battle  of  Worcester  (flight  of  Charles  II), 
1651. 

The  Navigation  Act  (modified,  1823  ;  re¬ 
pealed,  1846),  1651. 

War  with  the  Dutch,  1652. 

Cromwell  expels  Parliament,  1653. 

“  Barebone’s  Parliament,”  1653. 

The  Instrument  of  Government,  1653. 
♦Cromwell,  Protector,  1653. 

War  with  Spain,  1655. 

England  divided  into  eleven  military  dis¬ 
tricts,  1655. 

The  Humble  Petition  and  Advice,  1657. 
Richard  Cromwell,  Protector,  1658. 

The  army  compels  Richard  to  abdicate, 
1656. 

General  Monk  calls  a  “  Free  Parliament,” 
1660. 

Charles  II  sends  the  Declaration  of  Breda, 
1660. 

♦The  Convention  Parliament  invites  Charles 
1 1  to  return,  1660. 

XIII.  The  Stuart  Period  (Second 
Part),  1660-1714 

Charles  II,  1660. 

Standing  army  established,  1660. 

Feudal  dues  and  services  abolished,  1660. 
Corporation  Act,  1661  (repealed,  1828). 
Fourth  Act  of  Uniformity,  1662. 
Presbyterian  clergy  driven  out,  1662. 

Royal  Society  founded  in  London,  1662. 
Conventicle  Act,  1664. 

Repeal  (in  form)  of  Triennial  Act,  1664 
(see  1641). 

Seizure  of  New  Amsterdam  (New  York), 
1664. 

War  with  the  Dutch,  1665. 

The  Plague  in  London,  1665. 

The  Five-Mile  Act,  1665. 

Great  fire  of  London,  1666. 

The  Dutch  sail  up  the  Thames,  1667. 

The  Cabal  comes  into  power,  1667. 
♦Secret  Treaty  of  Dover,  1670. 

The  King  robs  the  Exchequer,  1671. 
Declaration  of  Indulgence,  1673. 

The  Test  Act,  1673  (repealed,  1828). 

♦The  so-called  “  Popish  Plot,”  1678. 

♦The  Disabling  Act  (excludes  Catholics), 
1678. 

♦The  Habeas  Corpus  Act  passed,  1679. 

The  Exclusion  Bill  introduced,  1679. 
♦Rise  of  Whigs  and  Tories.  1680? 

The  Rye-House  Plot,  1683. 

Town  charters  revoked,  1684. 

James  II,  1685. 


XXXV111  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Monmouth’s  rebellion;  battle  of  Sedge- 
moor,  1685. 

The  Bloody  Assizes,  1685. 

♦Newton  demonstrates  the  law  of  gravitation, 

1687. 

The  Second  Declaration  of  Indulgence, 
1687-1688. 

Imprisonment  of  the  Seven  Bishops;  trial 
and  acquittal,  16S8. 

Birth  of  Prince  James,  the  so-called  “  Pre¬ 
tender,”  1688. 

William  of  Orange  invited  to  England, 1688. 
Arrival  of  William  ;  his  Declaration,  1688. 
Flight  of  James,  1688. 

The  ‘‘Convention  Parliament,”  1689. 

The  Declaration  of  Right,  1689. 
^-AJ^Williamand  Mary(0range-Stuart),1689.J 
/\  James  II’s  Great  Act  of  Attainder  issued  in 
Ireland,  1689. 

Siege  of  Londonderry,  1689. 

♦Mutiny  Bill  passes,  1689. 

♦Toleration  Act,  1689. 

^Vj^Bill  of  Rights,  1689. 

Secession  of  the  Non-Jurors,  1689. 

♦Battle  of  the  Boyne,  1690. 

Treaty  of  Limerick,  1691. 

Massacre  of  Glencoe,  1692. 

Battle  of  La  Hogue,  1692. 

♦Beginning  of  the  National  Debt,  1693. 
♦Bank  of  England  established,  1694. 
Triennial  Act  restored,  1694  (see  1664). 
♦The  press  made  free,  1695. 

Peace  of  Ryswick,  1697. 

♦Act  of  Settle  m^t,  1701. 

- ^fLft.nne.  1702T15.H  of  the  Stuart  sovereigns). 

'  War  with  France,  1702. 

Great  power  of  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough, 
1702. 


High  and  Low  Church  parties,  1703. 

First  daily  newspaper  in  England,  1703. 
♦Battle  of  Blenheim,  1704. 

♦Gibraltar  taken,  1704. 

♦Union  of  England  and  Scotland  (Great 
Britain),  1707. 

Trial  of  Dr.  Sacheverell,  1710. 

Mrs.  Masham  comes  into  power,  1711. 

Act  against  Occasional  Conformity,  1711 
(repealed,  1718). 

♦Treaty  of  Utrecht,  1713. 

The  Schism  Act,  1714  (repealed,  1718). 


* 


XIV.  The  Hanoverian  Period, 
1714  to  the  Present  Time 


George  1,  lilt.  rV* 

Jacobite  rebellion  in  Scotland,  in  favor  of 
the  “Old  Pretender,”  1715. 


f\  Geo 

UZ 


Septennial  Act,  1716. 

Introduction  of  inoculation  for  Smallpox, 
1717;  (followed  by  vaccination  in 
1796). 

♦The  South  Sea  Bubble,  1720. 

♦Sir  Roger  Walpole,  first  Prime  Minister, 
1721. 

♦Modern  cabinet  system  begins,  1721. 
George  II,  1727 

Jonn  vV  esley  —  Rise  of  the  Methodists, 
1739. 


War  of  “Jenkins’  Ear,”  1739. 

War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  1741. 
Battle  of  Dettingen,  1743. 

Jacobite  rebellion  in  Scotland,  in  favor  of 
the  “  Youny  Prei^mderj”  1745.. 

The  “Pretender”  defeated  at  Culloden, 

mu 

Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  1748. 

Clive  takes  Arcot,  1751. 

Introduction  of  the  New  Style,  1752. 
♦Clive  wins  the  battle  of  Plassey;  founda¬ 
tion  of  England’s  Indian  empire,  1757. 
♦Victory  of  Quebec,  1759  (England  gains 

"Beginning  of  the  canal  system,  1761. 
Canada  ceded  to  Great  Britain,  1763. 
Wilkes  attacks  the  Government,  1763. 
♦Stamp  Act,  1765  (repealed,  1766). 
♦Watt’s  steam  engine,  1769-1785. 

Letters  of  “Junius,”  1769. 

♦Debates  in  Parliament  begin  to  be  reported 
regularly,  17  71. 

♦“The  Boston  Tea  Party,”  1773. 

The  four  “  Intolerable  Acts,”  1774. 
♦Declaration  of  American  Independence, 
1776. 


♦Defeat  of  Burgoyne,  1777. 

Lord  George  Gordon  riots,  1780./ 
♦Defeat  of  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown,  1781. 
Poynings’  Law  repealed,  1782  (see  1494). 
♦Recognition  of  the  independence  of  the 
United  States,  1782,  followed  by  De¬ 
finitive  Treaty  in  1783. 

Trial  of  Warren  Hastings,  17SS-1795. 
War  with  France,  1793. 

♦Vaccination  introduced,  1796? 

Bank  of  England  suspends  payment,  1797. 
Battle  of  the  Nile,  1798. 

Irish  Rebellion,  1798. 

♦Union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  1800. 
♦Battle  of  Trafalgar,  1S05. 

Abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  1S07. 

Luddite  riots,  1811. 

George  III  becomes  insane;  Prince  of 
Wales  appointed  regent,  1S11. 


PRINCIPAL  DATES  IN  ENGLISH  HISTORY  XXXIX 


♦First  steamboat  in  Great  Britain,  1812. 
♦Second  war  with  America,  1812. 

♦Battle  of  Waterloo,  1815.. 

The  “  Six  Acts  ”  (relating  to  seditious  meet¬ 
ings,  etc.)#  1819. 

♦First  Atlantic  steamship,  1819. 

George  IV,  1820, 

•‘Capital  punishment  greatly  restricted, 

1821. 

♦Repeal  of  the  Corporation  Act,  1828  (see 
1661). 

♦Repeal  of  the  Test  Act,  1828  (see  1673). 
♦Catholic  emancipation,  1829. 

♦Friction  matches  introduced,  1829? 

..The  new  police,  1829. 
ftwilliam  IV,  1830.  _ 

♦Stephenson  invents  the  first  successful  loco¬ 
motive  (the  “Rocket”),  1830. 
♦Opening  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
Railway,  1832. 

♦Passage  of  the  Reform  Bill,  1832.J 
Party  names  ot  Liberal' and  Conservative 
begin  to  come  into  use,  1832. 
♦Emancipation  of  slaves  in  British  colonies, 

1833. 

First  Factory  Act  (regulates  the  employ¬ 
ment  of  women  and  children),  1833. 
East  India  trade  thrown  open,  1833. 

New  Poor  Law,  1834. 

Municipal  Corporation  Act,  1835. 
Victoria,  1837, 

Criminal  law  reforms,  1837. 

The  Opium  War,  1839. 

♦Penny  postage  established,  1840. 

China  compelled  to  open  a  number  of  ports 
to  trade,  1842. 

♦Grove  discovers  the  law  of  the  indestructi¬ 
bility  of  force,  1842. 

Jews  admitted  to  municipal  offices,  1846. 
♦Famine  in  Ireland,  1846. 

Railway  speculation  and  panic,  1846. 
♦First  telegraph  line  opened,  1846. 

♦Repeal  of  the  Com  Laws  ;  beginning  of  free 

‘  jrade,  1846lSgr™0L 

♦Ether  begins  to  be  used  in  surgery,  1846. 
^gjtation,  1848. 


Repeal  of  the  Navigation  Act,  1849  (see 
1651). 

♦First  “World’s  Fair,”  1851. 

The  Crimean  War,  1854. 

♦Rise  of  cheap  newspapers,  1855. 

Right  of  search  abandoned,  1856. 

The  Indian  Mutiny,  1857. 

Sovereignty  of  India  given  to  the  Crown, 

1858. 

♦First  Atlantic  cable,  1858;  relaid,  1866. 
♦Jews  admitted  to  Parliament,  1858. 
♦Darwin  publishes  “  Thp  Origin  ftf  Spppif“ 

1859. 

The  Trent  Affair,  1861. 

♦Reform  Act,  extending  the  franchise,  1867- 
Compulsory  church  rates  abolished,  1868. 
♦Disestablishment  of  the  Irish  branch  of  the 
Church  of  England,  1869. 

♦Partial  woman  suffrage  (to  single  women 
and  widows  who  are  householders), 

1869. 

♦Government  (“Board”)  schools  estab¬ 
lished,  1870. 

♦Civil-service  examinations  established, 

1870. 

♦First  Irish  Land  Bill,  1870. 

♦Religious  tests  in  universities  abolished, 

1871. 

♦The  Ballot  Act,  1872. 

♦Joseph  Arch’s  Agricultural  Union,  1872. 
♦Geneva  Tribunal  (. Alabama  case),  1872. 
The  Queen  made  Empress  of  India,  1877. 
♦The  Irish  Land  League,  1879. 

♦Second  Irish  Land  Act,  1881. 

Suppression  of  the  Land  League,  1882. 
♦Reform  Act  (extending  suffrage),  1884. 
The  Queen’s  Jubilee,  June  21,  1887. 

The  Oaths  Act,  1888. 

♦County  Councils  Act,  1888. 

♦Assisted  Education  Act,  1891. 

♦Parish  Councils  Act,  1894. 

The  “  Diamond  Jubilee,”  June  22,  1897. 
♦War  in  South  Africa,  1899-1901. 

♦Death  of  Queen  Victoria,  Jan.  22,  1901. 
♦Accession  of  Edward  VII,  1901. 


A  SHORT  LIST  OF  BOOKS  ON  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


[The  *  marks  contemporary  or  early  history.] 

N.B.  —  A  selected  list  of  twenty  books  especially  adapted  to  the  use  of  teachers  and  pupils, 
for  reference  and  collateral  reading,  is  given  on  this  first  page.  It  includes  the 
names  of  publishers  with  prices. 


Ge?ieral  Histories 

Gardiner,  SR.  A  Student’s  History  of 
England,  illustrated,  3  vols.  Long¬ 
mans,  N.Y.  ($3.50);  or  bound  in  one 
very  thick  volume  ($3.00). 

Smith,  Goldwin.  The  United  Kingdom,  a 
Political  History,  2  vols.  Macmillan, 
N.Y.  ($4.00). 

Bright,  J.  F.  History  of  England,  4  vols. 
Longmans,  N.Y.  ($6.75). 

Green,  J.  R.  A  Short  History  of  the 
English  People,  beautifully  illustrated, 
4  vols.  Harper  &  Bros. ,  N.Y.  ($20.00). 

Brewer,  J.  S.  The  Student’s  Hume,  1  vol. 
Murray,  London  (ys 6d). 

Creighton,  M.  Epochs  of  English  History, 
6  small  vols.  in  one.  Longmans,  N.Y. 
($1.25). 

Knight,  C.  The  Popular  History  of  Eng¬ 
land,  9  vols.,  illustrated.  Wame,  Lon¬ 
don  (£3  3 s). 

English  Constitutional  History 

Ransome,  C.  Rise  of  Constitutional  Gov¬ 
ernment  in  England,  1  vol.  Longmans, 
N.Y.  ($2.00).  (An  excellent  short  con¬ 
stitutional  history.) 

Taswell-Langmead,  T.  P.  English  Consti¬ 
tutional  History,  new  and  revised  edi¬ 
tion,  1  vol.  Stevens  &  Haynes,  London 
($3.12).  (This  is  the  best  complete 
constitutional  history  of  England.) 

Feilden,  H.  St.  C.  A  Short  Constitutional 
History  of  England  (revised  edition), 
1  vol.  Ginn  &  Company,  Boston  ($1.25). 
(This  is  a  reference  manual  of  excep¬ 
tional  value.) 

General  Works  of  Reference 

Low  and  Pulling.  Dictionary  of  English 
.  History  (revised  edition),  1  vol.  Cas¬ 
sell,  N.Y.  ($2.50). 


Gardiner,  S.  R.  A  School  Atlas  of  Eng¬ 
lish  History,  1  vol.  Longmans,  N.Y. 
($1.50). 

Lee,  G.  C.  Source-Book  of  English  His¬ 
tory  (giving  leading  documents,  etc.), 
1  vol.  Holt  &  Co.,  N.Y.  ($2.00). 

Acland  and  Ransome.  English  Political 
History  in  Outline.  Longmans,  N.Y. 
($1.25).  (Excellent  for  reference.) 

Powell,  J.  York.  English  History  from 
Contemporary  Writers,  16  vols.  Nutt 
&  Co.,  London  (is  per  vol.).  (A  series 
of  great  value.) 

Gibbins,  H.  de  B.  An  Industrial  History 
of  England,  1  vol.  Scribners,  N.Y. 

($1.20). 

Cunningham  and  MacArthur.  Outlines  of 
English  Industrial  History.  Macmillan, 
N.Y.  ($1.50). 

Church,  A.  J.  Early  Britain.  (Story  of 
the  Nations  Series.)  Putnams,  N.  Y. 
($1.50). 

Story,  A.  T.  The  Building  of  the  British 
Empire,  2  vols.  Putnams,  N.Y.  ($3.00). 

McCarthy,  J.  The  Story  of  the  People  of 
England  in  the  XIXth  Century,  2  vols. 
Putnams,  N.Y.  ($3.00). 

Works  of  Reference  to  be  found  in 
Libraries 

Traill,  H.  D.  Social  England,  6  vols. 

The  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  24  vols. 

Stephen,  L.  Dictionary  of  National  [British] 
Biography,  63  vols.  (A  work  of  the 
highest  rank.) 

Adams’  Manual  of  Historical  Literature. 

Mullinger’s  Authorities  on  English  History. 

Bailey’s  Succession  to  the  Crown  (with  full 
genealogical  tables). 

Henderson’s  Side  Lights  on  English  His¬ 
tory. 

Poole’s  Index  to  Reviews. 


BOOKS  ON  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


xliii 


I.  The  Prehistoric  Period 

Dawkins’  Early  Man  in  Britain. 

Wright’s  The  Celt,  the  Roman,  and  the 
Saxon. 

Elton’s  Origins  of  English  History. 

Rhys’  Celtic  Britain. 

Geoffrey  of  Monmouth’s  Chronicle  (legen¬ 
dary).  - 

Geike’s  Influence  of  Geology  on  English 
History,  in  Macmillan's  Magazine , 
1882. 

II.  The  Roman  Period,  55,  54  b.c.  ; 

A.D. 43-410 

♦Caesar’s  Commentaries  on  the  Gallic  War 
(Books  IV  and  V,  chiefly  55,  54  b.c.). 

♦Tacitus’  Agricola  and  Annals  (chiefly  from 
78-84); 

♦Gildas’  History  of  Britain  (whole  period). 

♦Bede’s  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Britain 
(whole  period). 

Wright’s  The  Celt,  the  Roman,  and  the 
Saxon. 

Elton’s  Origins  of  English  History. 

Pearson’s  England  during  the  Early  and 
Middle  Ages. 

Scarth's  Roman  Britain.1 

III.  The  Saxon,  or  Early  English, 

Period,  449-1066 

♦The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  (whole  period). 

♦Gildas’  History  of  Britain  (Roman  Con¬ 
quest  to  560). 

*Bede’s  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Britain 
(earliest  times  to  731). 

♦Nennius’  History  of  Britain  (earliest  times 
to  642). 

♦Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  Chronicle  (legen¬ 
dary)  (earliest  times  to  689). 

♦Asser’s  Life  of  Alfred  the  Great. 

Elton’s  Origins  of  English  History. 

Pauli’s  Life  of  Alfred. 

Green’s  Making  of  England. 

Green’s  Conquest  of  England. 

Freeman’s  Norman  Conquest,  Vols.  I -I  I. 

Pearson’s  History  of  England  during  the 
Early  and  Middle  Ages. 

Freeman’s  Origin  of  the  English  Nation. 

Stubbs’  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

Taine’s  History  of  English  Literature. 

Church’s  Beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


Armitage’s  Childhood  of  the  English  Na¬ 
tion.2 

Freeman’s  Early  English  History.2 

IV.  The  Norman  Period,  1066-1154 

♦The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  (Peterborough 
continuation)  (whole  period). 

♦Ordericus  Vitalis’  Ecclesiastical  History  (to 

1141) . 

♦Wace’s  Roman  de  Rou  (Taylor’s  transla¬ 
tion)  (to  1106). 

♦Bruce’s  Bayeux  Tapestry  Elucidated  (with 
plates) . 

♦William  of  Malmesbury’s  Chronicle  (to 

1142) . 

♦Roger  of  Hoveden’s  Chronicle  (whole 
period). 

Freeman’s  Norman  Conquest. 

Church's  Life  of  Anselm. 

Taine’s  History  of  English  Literature. 

Stubbs’  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

Freeman’s  Short  History  of  the  Norman 
Conquest.3 

Armitage’s  Childhood  of  the  English  Na¬ 
tion.3 

Johnson’s  Normans  in  Europe.3 

Creighton’s  England  a  Continental  Power.3 

V.  The  Angevin  Period,  1154-1399 

♦Matthew  Paris’  Chronicle  (1067-1253). 

♦Richard  of  Devizes’  Chronicle  (1189-1192). 

♦Froissart’s  Chronicles  (1325-1400). 

♦Jocelin  of  Brakelonde’s  Chronicle  (1173- 
1202)  (see  Carlyle’s  Past  and  Present, 
Book  II). 

Norgate’s  Angevin  Kings. 

Taine’s  History  of  English  Literature. 

Anstey’s  William  of  Wykeham. 

Pearson’s  England  in  the  Early  and  Middle 
Ages. 

Maurice’s  Stephen  Langton. 

Creighton’s  Life  of  Simon  de  Montfort. 

Stubbs’  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

Gairdnerand  Spedding’s  Studies  in  English 
History  (the  Lollards). 

Blade’s  Life  of  Caxton. 

Seebohm’s  Essay  on  the  Black  Death  (. Fort¬ 
nightly  Review ,  1865). 

Maurice’s  Wat  Tyler,  Ball,  and  Oldcastle. 

Gibbins’  English  Social  Reformers  (Lang- 
land  and  John  Ball). 

Buddensieg’s  Life  of  Wiclif. 


2  The  two  best  short  histories. 

8  The  four  best  short  histories. 


1  The  best  short  history. 


xliv  LEADING  FACTS  OF 


Burrows'  Wicklifs  Place  in  History. 

Pauli's  Pictures  of  Old  England. 

Stubbs’  Early  Plantagenets.1 

Rowley's  Rise  of  the  People.1 

Warburton’s  Edward  III.1 

Shakespeare's  John  and  Richard  (Hudson's 
edition). 

Scott’s  Ivanhoe  and  The  Talisman  (Rich¬ 
ard  I  and  John). 

VI.  The  Lancastrian  Period, 

1399-1461 

*The  Paston  Letters  (Gairdner’s  edition) 
(1424-1506). 

♦Fortescue’s  Governance  of  England  (Plum¬ 
mer's  edition)  (1460?). 

*  Hall's  Chronicle  (1398-1509). 

Brougham's  England  under  the  House  of 
Lancaster. 

Besant’s  Life  of  Sir  Richard  Whittington. 

Taine’s  English  Literature. 

Rand’s  Chaucer’s  England. 

Stubbs'  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

Strickland’s  Queens  of  England  (Margaret 
of  Anjou). 

Reed’s  English  History  in  Shakespeare. 

Gairdner's  Houses  of  Lancaster  and  York.2 

Rowley’s  Rise  of  the  People.2 

Shakespeare’s  Henry  IV,  V,  and  VI  (Hud¬ 
son’s  edition). 

VII.  The  Yorkist  Period,  1461-1485 

♦The  Paston  Letters  (Gairdner’s  edition) 
(1424-1506). 

♦Sir  Thomas  More’s  Edward  V  and  Rich¬ 
ard  III. 

♦Hall’s  Chronicle  (1398-1509). 

Hallam’s  Middle  Ages. 

Gairdner’s  Richard  III. 

Taine’s  English  Literature. 

Stubbs’  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

Gairdner’s  Houses  of  Lancaster  and  York.2 

Rowley’s  Rise  of  the  People.2 

Shakespeare’s  Richard  III  (Hudson's  edi¬ 
tion). 

VIII.  The  Tudor  Period,  1485-1603 

*Holinshed’s  History  of  England  (from 
earliest  times  to  1577). 

*Lord  Bacon’s  Life  of  Henry  VII. 

♦Latimer’s  1st  and  6th  Sermons  before  Ed¬ 
ward  VI  and  “The  Ploughers”  (1549). 

♦Hall’s  Chronicle  (1398-1509). 


ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  Eng¬ 
land. 

Lingard’s  History  of  England  (Roman 
Catholic). 

Brewer’s  Reign  of  Henry  VIII. 

Creighton’s  Cardinal  Wolsey. 

Gibbins’  Social  Reformers  (Sir  Thomas 
More). 

Froude’s  History  of  England.  • 

Strickland’s  Queens  of  England  (Catharine 
of  Aragon,  Anne  Boleyn,  Mary,  Eliza¬ 
beth). 

Demaus’  Life  of  Latimer. 

Froude’s  Short  Studies. 

Nicholls’  Life  of  Cabot. 

Dixon’s  History  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Hall’s  Society  in  the  Age  of  Elizabeth. 

Thombury’s  Shakespeare's  England. 

Macaulay's  Essay  on  Lord  Burleigh. 

Barrows’  Life  of  Drake. 

Creighton’s  Life  of  Raleigh. 

Taine’s  English  Literature. 

Creighton’s  The  Tudors  and  the  Reforma¬ 
tion.3 

Seebohm's  Era  of  the  Protestant  Revolu¬ 
tion.3 

Moberly’s  Early  Tudors.3 

Creighton’s  Age  of  Elizabeth.3 

Shakespeare’s  Henry  VIII  (Hudson’s  edi¬ 
tion). 

Scott’s  Kenilworth,  Abbot,  Monastery  (Eliz¬ 
abeth,  and  Mary  Queen  of  Scots). 

IX.  The  Stuart  Period  (First 
Part),  1603-1649 

♦The  Prose  Works  of  James  I  (1599-1625). 

Jesse’s  Memoirs  of  the  Court  of  England. 

♦Fuller’s  Church  History  of  Britain  (earliest 
times  to  1648). 

♦Clarendon’s  History  of  the  Rebellion  (1625- 

1660). 

♦Memoirs  of  Col.  Hutchinson  (1616-1664). 

♦May’s  History  of  the  Long  Parliament 
(1640-1643). 

Carlyle’s  Historical  Sketches  of  Reigns  of 
James  I  and  Charles  I. 

Taine’s  History  of  English  Literature. 

Spedding’s  Lord  Bacon  and  his  Times. 

Gardiner’s  History  of  England  (1603-1649). 

Church’s  Life  of  Lord  Bacon. 

Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  Eng¬ 
land. 

Hume’s  History  of  England  (Tory). 

Macaulay’s  History  of  England  (Whig). 


•  1  The  three  best  short  histories.  2  The  two  best  short  histories. 

3  The  four  best  short  histories. 


BOOKS  ON  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


xlv 


Lingard’s  History  of  England  (Roman 
Catholic). 

Strickland’s  Queens  of  England. 

Ranke’s  History  of  England  in  the  Seven¬ 
teenth  Century. 

Macaulay’s  Essays  (Bacon,  Hampden,  Hal- 
lam’s  History). 

Goldwin  Smith’s  Three  English  Statesmen 
(Cromwell,  Pym,  Hampden). 

CorAery’s  Struggle  against  Absolute  Mon¬ 
archy.1 

Cordery  and  Phillpott’s  King  and  Common¬ 
wealth.1 

Gardiner’s  Puritan  Revolution.1 

Scott’s  Fortunes  of  Nigel  (James  I). 

X.  The  Commonwealth  and  Pro¬ 
tectorate,  1649-1660  (see 

Preceding  Period) 

Gardiner’s  History  of  England  (1649-1660) 

*Ludlow’s  Memoirs  (1640-1668). 

*Carlyle’s  Life  and  Letters  of  Oliver  Crom¬ 
well. 

Carlyle’s  Hero  Worship  (Cromwell). 

Guizot’s  Cromwell  and  the  Commonwealth. 

Morley’s  Cromwell. 

Roosevelt’s  Cromwell. 

Guizot’s  Richard  Cromwell. 

Guizot’s  Life  of  Monk. 

Masson’s  Life  and  Times  of  Milton. 

Bisset’s  Omitted  Chapters  in  the  History  of 
England. 

Pattison’s  Life  of  Milton. 

Scott’s  Woodstock  (Cromwell). 

XI.  Stuart  Period  (Second  Part), 

1660-1714 

^Evelyn’s  Diary  (1641-1706). 

*Pepys’  Diary  (1659-1669). 

*Burnet’s  History  of  his  Own  Time  (1660- 

1713)- 

Macaulay’s  History  of  England  (Whig). 

Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  Eng¬ 
land. 

Taine’s  History  of  English  Literature. 

Strickland’s  Queens  of  England. 

Ranke’s  History  of  England  in  the  Seven¬ 
teenth  Century. 

Hume’s  History  of  England  (Tory). 

Brewster’s  Life  of  Newton. 

Lingard’s  History  of  England  ('Roman 
Catholic). 

Green’s  History  of  the  English  People. 


Stanhope’s  History  of  England. 

Lecky’s  History  of  England  in  the  Eight¬ 
eenth  Century. 

Macaulay’s  Essays  (Milton,  Mackintosh's 
History  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession, 
and  The  Comic  Dramatists  of  the  Res¬ 
toration). 

Creighton’s  Life  of  Marlborough. 

Guizot’s  History  of  Civilization  (Chapter 
XIII). 

Morris’  Age  of  Anne.1 

Hale’s  Fall  of  the  Stuarts.1 

Cordery’s  Struggle  against  Absolute  Mon¬ 
archy.1 

Scott’s  Peveril  of  the  Peak  and  Old  Mor¬ 
tality  (Charles  II). 

Thackeray’s  Henry  Esmond  (Anne). 

XII.  The  Hanoverian  Period, 
1714  to  the  Present  time 

^Memoirs  of  Robert  Walpole. 

*  Horace  Walpole’s  Memoirs  and  Journals. 

Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  England 
(to  death  of  George  II,  1760). 

May’s  Constitutional  History  (1760-1870). 

Amos’  English  Constitution  (1830-1880). 

Bagehot’s  English  Constitution. 

Lecky’s  History  of  England  in  the  Eight¬ 
eenth  Century. 

Walpole’s  History  of  England  (1815-1860). 

Molesworth’s  History  of  England  (1830- 
1870). 

Martineau’s  History  of  England  (1816-1846). 

Taine’s  History  of  English  Literature. 

Gibbins’  Social  Reformers  (Wesley  and  Wil- 
berforce;  and  the  Factory  Reformers). 

Lecky’s  American  Revolution,  edited  by 
Prof.  J.  A.  Woodbum. 

Bancroft’s  History  of  the  United  States. 

Bryant’s  History  of  the  United  States. 

Stanhope’s  History  of  England  (1713-1783). 

Green’s  Causes  of  the  Revolution. 

Seeley’s  Expansion  of  England. 

Frothingham’s  Rise  of  the  Republic. 

Southey’s  Life  of  Wesley. 

Southey’s  Life  of  Nelson. 

Wharton’s  Wits  and  Beaux  of  Society. 

Waite’s  Life  of  Wellington. 

Massey’s  Life  of  George  III. 

Goldwin  Smith’s  Lectures  (Foundation  of 
the  American  Colonies). 

Macaulay’s  Essays  (Warren  Hastings,  Clive, 
Pitt,  Walpole,  Chatham,  Johnson,  Ma¬ 
dame  D’Arblay). 


1  The  three  best  short  histories. 


xlvi 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Smiles’  Life  of  James  Watt. 

Sydney  Smith’s  Peter  Plymley’s  Letters. 
Smiles’  Life  of  Stephenson. 

Thackeray’s  Four  Georges. 

McCarthy’s  Four  Georges. 

Smiles’  Industrial  Biography. 

Grant  Allen’s  Life  of  Darwin. 

Ashton’s  Dawn  of  the  XIX.  Century  in 
England. 

Ludlow’s  American  Revolution.1 
Rowley’s  Settlement  of  the  Constitution 
(1689-1 784). 1 

Morris’  Early  Hanoverians  (George  I  and 
II).1 

McCarthy’s  Epoch  of  Reform  (1830-1850)  1 
Tancock’s  England  during  the  American 
and  European  Wars  (1765-1820). 1 
Browning's  Modem  England  (1820-1 874) J 
McCarthy's  History  of  Our  Own  Times 
(1837-1897). 

1  The  six  best  short  histories. 

2  Contain  valuable  articles  on  the  Victorian 


McCarthy’s  England  under  Gladstone 

( 1 880— 1 884) . 

Ward's  Reign  of  Victoria  (1837-1887). 
Bolton’s  Famous  English  Statesmen  of 
Queen  Victoria’s  Reign. 

Hinton’s  English  Radical  Leaders. 

Gibbins’  Social  Reformers  (Kingsley,  Car¬ 
lyle,  and  Ruskin). 

Traill’s  Social  England,  Vol.  VI. 

Brooks  Adams’  America’s  Economical  Su-‘ 
premacy. 

Escott's  Victorian  Age. 

The  English  Illustrated  Magazine  for 
July,  1897. 2 

The  Contemporary  Revie^u  for  June,  1897. 2 
The  Fort7iightly  Review  for  June,  1897. 2 
Scott's  Rob  Roy,  Waverley,  and  Redgaunt- 
let  (the  Old  and  the  Young  Pretender, 
i7*5.  I745-I753>)* 

Thackeray’s  Virginians  (Washington). 
Dickens’  Bamaby  Rudge  (1780). 


Era,  giving  general  view  of  the  reign. 


A  SUMMARY  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY  TOPICS 
WITH  BOOK  REFERENCES1 2 


In  connection  with  the  following  topics  it  will  be  found  that  the  five  questions  (or  some 
modification  of  them)  mentioned  in  Suggestions  to  Teachers,  on  pp.  x-xi,  can  generally  be 
used  to  good  advantage. 

Topics  printed  in  italics,  e.g.,  What  we  owe  to  Prehistoric  Man ,  are  given  as  examples 
of  subjects  to  which,  if  time  permits,  special  attention  may  be  profitably  given. 

With  respect  to  further  search  questions,  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  each  teacher  will 
prefer  to  prepare  his  own,  since  he  alone  can  judge  of  the  degree  and  kind  of  drill  his  pupils 
particularly  require. 

On  topics  relating  to  constitutional  history,  e.g.,  Magna  Carta,  etc.,  it  would  be  well  to 
compare  what  is  said  in  the  body  of  the  book  with  the  Summary  of  Constitutional  History 
in  the  Appendix,  pp.  i-xxxii. 


I.  Britain  before  Written  History  begins 

The  Country  (§§  1-5);  Man;  The  Rough-Stone  Age  (§§  6-1 1);  The  Age  of  Polished 
Stone  (§§  12-16)  ;  The  Bronze  Age  (§§  17-24);  The  Druids  (§  23);  What  we  owe  to  Pre¬ 
historic  Man  (§  24). 

See  Geikie’s  Influence  of  Geology  on  English  History  in  Macmillan's  Magazine ,  March, 
1882;  Ramsay's  Physical  Geography  of  Great  Britain:  Green’s  Short  Geography  of  the 
British  Isles,  ch.  1-2  ;  The  Encyclopaedia  Britannica, VIII  (Geography  of  England);  Gardi¬ 
ner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  1  ;  Church’s  Early  Britain,  ch.  1  ;  Pearson’s  England,  I,  ch.  1  ; 
Elton’s  Origins  of  English  History,  ch.  6,  10. 

II.  The  Geography  of  England  in  Relation  to  its  History 

Celtic,  Roman,  Saxon,  Danish,  and  Norman  names  (§§  29-33);  Eastern  vs.  Western 
Britain  (§  34) ;  The  Channel  in  English  History  (§  35);  Climate  (§  36) ;  Industrial  Division 
of  England  (§  37) ;  Commercial  Situation  of  England  (§  38). 

See  Geikie,  Ramsay,  and  Green,  referred  to  in  No.  I,  above. 

III.  Roman  Britain  (55  B.C.,  43-410  A.D.) 

Caesar’s  Invasion  of  Britain  (§§  39-44);  Third  Roman  Invasion  of  Britain  (§§  45-46); 
The  First  Roman  Colony  planted  in  Britain  ;  London  (§§  47-48) ;  Expedition  against  the 
Druids  (§  49) ;  Revolt  of  Boadicea  ($  50) ;  Christianity  first  introduced  into  Britain  ;  Perse¬ 
cution  of  British  Christians  (,§§  51-52) ;  Agricola  explores  the  Coast  of  Britain  ;  He  builds  a 
Line  of  Forts  (§  53);  The  Romans  clear  and  cultivate  the  Country  (§  54);  Roman  Cities; 
York  (§  55) ;  Roman  System  of  Government  (§§  56,  59,  60,  62) ;  Roman  Roads,  Forts,  and 
Walls  (§§  56-58);  Roman  Civilization  False  (§  59);  The  Mass  of  the  Native  Population 
Slaves  (§  60);  Roman  Villas  (§  61);  Roman  Taxation  and  Cruelty  (§  62);  The  Romans 
compelled  to  abandon  Britain  (ij  63)  ;  Remains  of  Roman  Civilization  (§  64) ;  Good  Results 
0/ the  Rojnan  Conquest  0/ Britain  (§  65). 

See  Scarth’s  Roman  Britain,  ch.  2,  10,  n,  13,  18,  22;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England, 
ch.  1  ;  Traill’s  Social  England,  I,  ch.  1  ;  Elton’s  Origins  of  English  History,  ch.  11 ;  Church’s 
Early  Britain,  ch.  2-9. 

1  The  figures  in  parenthesis,  e.g.,  The  Rough  Stone  Age  (§§  6-11),  refer  to  the  numbered  sections  of 
the  history. 

2  Green’s  English  People  refers  to  his  Short  History  of  the  English  People.  When  practicable,  the 
illustrated  edition  of  this  work,  in  4  vols.,  should  be  consulted. 

As  the  pagination  of  these  retercnce  books  differs  in  different  editions,  all  references  are  made  to 
volume  and  chapter. 

For  additional  reference  books,  sec  the  List  of  Books,  classified  by  periods,  on  pp.  xlii-xlvi. 


xlviii 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


IV.  The  Coming  of  the  Saxons,  or  English  (449  A.D.) 

Condition  of  the  Britons  after  the  Romans  left  the  Island  (§  66) ;  Letter  to  Aetius  (§  67) ; 
Vortigern's  Advice  (§  68);  Coming  of  the  Jutes,  449  (§  69);  Invasion  by  the  Saxons  (§  70); 
Siege  of  Anderida  (§  71)  ;  Settlement  of  Wessex,  Essex,  and  Middlesex  (§  72) ;  Invasion  by 
the  Angles  (§  73);  Bravery  of  the  Britons  (§  74);  King  Arthur  checks  the  Invaders  (§  751; 
The  Britons  driven  into  the  West  (§  76);  Gregory  and  the  English  Slaves  (§  77);  Coviing 
of  Augustine ,  J97  (§  78);  Augustine  converts  the  King  of  Kent  and  his  People  (§  79); 
Augustine  builds  the  First  Monastery  (§  80) ;  Conversion  of  the  North  (§81);  Christianity 
organized  (§  82) ;  Labors  of  the  Monks  (§  82)  ;  Literary  work  of  the  Monks  (§  83) ;  The 
Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  (§  83)  ;  Influence  of  Christianity  on  Society  (§  84) ;  Political  Influ¬ 
ence  of  Christianity  (§  85) :  Egbert  at  the  Court  of  Charlemagne  (§  87) ;  Egbert  becomes 
“  King  of  the  English,”  828  (§  88);  Britain  becomes  England  (§  89);  Alfred  the  Great , 
871-qor  (§§  90-99);  Invasion  by  the  Danes,  or  Northmen;  They  destroy  the  Monasteries 
(§§  91-92)  ;  Alfred’s  Victories  over  the  Danes  :  White  Horse  Hill  (§  93)  ;  The  Danes  compel 
Alfred  to  retreat  (§  94) ;  Great  Victory  by  Alfred  ;  Treaty  of  Wedmore  (§§  95-96) ;  How  the 
Treaty  of  Wedmore  divided  England  (§  96);  Alfred’s  Laws;  His  Translations  (§  97); 
Alfred’s  Navy  (§98);  Estimate  of  Alfred’s  Reign  (§99);  Dunstan’s  Reforms  (§§  100-103) ; 
Regular  and  Secular  Clergy  (§§  101,  102);  Danger  to  the  State  from  Each  Class  of  Clergy 
(§  102);  Dunstan  as  a  Statesman  and  Artisan  (§  103);  New  Invasions  by  the  Northmen 
(§  104);  The  Danegeld,  or  Dane  Money  (§  104);  The  Northmen  invade  France;  Origin 
of  the  Name  “Normans”  (§  105);  Sweyn,  the  Dane,  conquers  England  (§  106);  Reign  of 
Canute  (§  106);  Canute’s  Four  Earldoms  (§  107);  Prince  Edward  (§  108):  Restoration  of 
the  English  Kings  ($  109);  Edward  the  Confessor  (§  109);  Edward  builds  Westminster 
Abbey  (§  110);  Harold,  the  Last  of  the  Saxon  Kings  (§§  in,  143-151);  What  the  Saxon 
Conquest  did  for  Britain  (§§  112-114);  Elements  contributed  by  the  Danesy  or  Northmen 
(§  1  *3) ;  What  the  A  nglo-Saxons  accomplished  (§  114). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  1,  sect.  1-6,  and  ch.  2,  sect.  1 ;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  1  ; 
Traill’s  Social  England,  I,  ch.  2;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  2-6;  Pearson’s  England, 
I,  ch.  6-21  :  Church’s  Beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages  (Alfred  the  Great);  Dictionary  of 
National  (British)  Biography,  I  (Alfred  the  Great);  Stubbs’s  Constitutional  History  of 
England,  I,  ch.  4-8;  The  North  American  Review,  October,  1901  (Alfred  the  Great);  The 
(London)  Speaker ,  Sept.  28,  1901  (“The  Alfred  Millenary”). 


General  View  of  the  Saxon,  or  Early  English,  Period  (449-1066)  [§§  1 15-142] 

See  references  above,  especially  Traill,  Pearson,  Church,  and  Stubbs. 


V.  The  Coming  of  the  Normans  (1066) 

William  the  Conqueror  <1066-1087). — William's  Message  to  Harold  (§  143);  William 
prepares  to  invade  England  (§  144);  The  Invasion  (§§  145-148);  Harold  in  the  North  (§  147); 
What  William  did  after  landing  (§  148) ;  Harold  marches  to  meet  William  (§  150)  ;  The  Battle 
of  Hastings ,  tobb  (§  150);  Battle  Abbey;  Harold’s  Grave  (§  15 1) ;  The  Bayeux  Tapestry 
(§  152) ;  William  takes  London  (§  153);  He  grants  a  Charter  to  London  (§  154);  The  Coro¬ 
nation  (§  155);  William  goes  to  Normandy  (§  155);  He  returns  to  England  (§  156);  He 
quells  Rebellion  in  the  North  (§  156);  Hereward  (§  157);  Necessity  of  William’s  Severity 
(§  1 58) ;  He  builds  the  Tower  of  London  (§  159);  He  confiscates  the  Land;  He  grants 
Estates  (§§  160-161);  Classes  of  Society,  Barons  7>s.  Villeins  (§  160);  How  William  granted 
Estates  (§  161)  ;  The  Feudal  System  of  Land  Tenure  ;  How  William  modified  it  (§  i6r, 
compare  §§  122-123,  170-171,  200,  and  see  Constitutional  Summary  in  Appendix,  §§  5-6); 
The  Three  Counties  Palatine  (§  162);  The  Law  of  Englishry  (§  163)  ;  Pope  Gregory  VII ; 
His  Scheme  of  Reform  (§§  164-166);  William  withstands  the  Pope  (§  167);  William  a  Just 
Ruler  (§  167);  New  Forest  (§  167);  William’s  Forest  Laws  (§  167);  The  Great  Survey; 
Domesday  Book  (§§  16S-170);  The  Great  Meeting  (§§  170-171)  ;  The  Oath  of  Allegiance 
(§  17 1);  What  William  did  for  England  (§§  172,  175);  William’s  Death  and  Burial 
(§§  173-174);  Results  of  the  Norman  Conquest  (§  175). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  2,  sect.  3-5;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  2  .  Traill’s  Social 
England,  I,  ch.  3;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  6-7;  Freeman’s  William  the  Con¬ 
queror;  Johnson’s  Normans  in  Europe,  ch.  12-14;  Creasv’s  Decisive  Battles  (Battle  of 
Hastings);  Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  LXI  (William  the  Conqueror); 
Stubbs’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  I,  ch.  9-11 ;  Taswell-Langmead’s  Constitutional 
History  of  England,  ch.  2  ;  Cheyney’s  Industrial  and  Social  England, ch.  1,  sect.  6,  and  ch.  2 
(Feudalism  and  Land  Tenure). 

William  Rufus  (1087-1100). — William  the  Conqueror’s  Bequest  (§  176);  Precarious 
State  of  England  (§  1 77);  Character  of  William  Rufus  (§  178);  His  Struggle  with  the  Barons 


A  SUMMARY  OF  HISTORY  TOPICS 


xlix 


(§§  179,  182,  184);  His  Methods  of  raising  Money  (§  180);  He  defrauds  the  Church  (§  180); 
He  makes  Anselm  Archbishop  (§  181)  ;  William  Rufus’s  Merit  (§  182);  His  Death  (§  183). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  2,  sect.  6;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  3;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  I,  ch.  3 ;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  8 ;  Johnson's  Normans  in  Europe, 
ch.  15. 

Henry  I  (1100-1135).  —  Henry's  Charter  of  Liberties  ;  Its  Importance  (§  185)  ;  Settlement 
of  the  Appointment  of  Bishops ;  The  King  recognized  as  Feudal  Lord  over  the  Church 
(§  186);  Henry's  Quarrel  with  Robert  (§  187);  The  Battle  of  Tinchebrai  and  Conquest  of 
Normandy  (§  187);  Henry  I,  “The  Lion  of  Justice”  (§  187). 

See  Green's  English  People,  ch.  2,  sect.  6;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  4:  Traill’s  Social 
England,  I,  ch.  3;  Gardiner's  Student’s  England,  ch.  9;  Johnson’s  Normans  in  Europe, 
ch.  16. 

Stephen  (1135-1154).  —  Stephen  vs.  Matilda,  Rivals  for  the  Crown  (§  189)  ;  The  Battle  of 
the  Standard  (§  190);  Civil  War  (§  191);  The  Po'wer  of  the  Church ;  The  Treaty  of 
Wallingford  (§§  19 1- 192). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  2,  sect.  7;  Bright's  England,  I,  ch.  5;  Traill's  Social 
England,  I,  ch.  3 ;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  9  ;  Stubbs’s  Early  Plantagenets,  ch.  2.1 

General  View  of  the  Norman  Period  (1066-1154)  [§§  193-208] 

See  references  above,  especially  Traill,  Johnson,  Stubbs,  and  Cheyney  ;  see  also  Free¬ 
man’s  Norman  Conquest,  V,  ch.  24-26;  Taswell-Langmead’s  Constitutional  History  of 
England,  ch.  1-2  ;  and  Knight’s  Pictorial  History  of  England,  I,  Bk.  III. 

VI.  The  Angevins,  or  Plantagenets  (1154-1399) 

Henry  II  (1154-1189). — Accession  and  Dominions  of  Henry  II  (§  209);  The  Name 
“  Plantagenet  ”  (§  209);  Henry’s  Charter  and  Reforms  (§210);  Ireland  (§  209);  War  with 
France  (§  211);  Scutage  (§  21 1);  Thomas  Becket  (§§  2 12-2 13);  Henry’s  Quarrel  with  Becket 
(§§  214-221);  The  Constitutions  of  Clarendon ,  1/64  (§§216-217,  221);  The  King  enforces 
the  Law  (§217);  Becket  takes  refuge  in  France  (§217);  Banishment  of  Becket's  Kinsmen 
(§218);  Becket  excommunicates  the  King  (§  218);  Prince  Henry  crowned  (§  219);  King 
Henry  and  Becket  reconciled  (§  219);  The  King  renews  the  Quarrel  with  Becket  (§  220) ; 
Becket  murdered  (§  220) ;  Results  of  the  Murder  (§§221, 223) ;  The  King  makes  his  Will  (§  222) ; 
Civil  War  (§  222);  The  King’s  Penance  (§  223);  End  of  the  Struggle  of  the  BaroJis  against 
the  Crown  (§224);  The  King  undertakes  to  reform  the  Administration  of  Justice  (§  225); 
Grand  Juries  (§  226) ;  Origin  of  the  Moder?i  Trial  by  Jury  (§  227);  The  King’s  Last  Days 
(§  228). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  2,  sect.  8;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  6;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  I,  ch.  3;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  10;  Stubbs’s  Early  Plantagenets, 
ch.  3-5  ;  Taswell-Langmead’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  ch.  3. 

Richard  I  (1189-1199).  —  Accession  and  Character  of  Richard  (§  230);  Condition  of 
Society  (§  23 1) ;  Richard’s  Coronation  (§232);  The  Crusades  (§§  233,  237-238);  Richard's 
Devices  for  raising  Money  (§  233);  The  Rise  of  the  Free  Towns  (§234);  Failure  of  the 
Third  Crusade  ;  Richard  taken  Prisoner  ;  His  Ransom  (§§  235-236) ;  Purpose  of  the  Crusades 
(§  237) ;  Results  of  the  Crusades:  Educational,  Social,  Political  (§  238). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  2,  sect.  9;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  7;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  I,  ch.  3  ;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  11 ;  Stubbs’s  Early  Plantagenets,  ch.  6 ; 
Guizot’s  History  of  Civilization  (The  Crusades). 

John  (1199-1216).  —  John  “Lackland”  (§  240);  The  Quarrels  of  the  King  (§  241); 
Murder  of  Prince  Arthur  (§242);  John’s  Loss  of  Normandy  (§  243) ;  Good  Results  of  the 
Loss  of  Normandy  (§  244);  The  King's  Despotism  (§  245);  Quarrel  of  John  with  the  Church 
(§  246) ;  The  Pope  places  the  Kingdom  under  an  Interdict  (§  246) ;  The  Pope  excommu¬ 
nicates  John  (§  246)  ;  John  submits  to  the  Pope  (§  246) ;  Magna  Carta ,  or  The  Great  Charter , 
1215  (§§  247-252) ;  The  Meeting  at  St.  Albans  (§  248)  ;  The  Battle  of  Bouvines  (§  249);  Second 
Meeting  of  the  Barons  (§  249):  John  grants  the  Great  Charter,  1215  (§  250);  Terms  and 
Value  of  the  Charter  (§  251);  England  leads  in  Constitutional  Government  (§  251);  John’s 
Efforts  to  break  the  Charter  (§  252);  The  Barons  invite  Louis  of  France  to  aid  them  (§  253); 
The  King’s  Death  (§  254). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  3,  sect.  2-3;  Bright’s  England,  ch.  8:  Traill’s  Social 
England,  I,  ch.  3  ;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  12;  Stubbs’s  Early  Plantagenets,  ch.  7; 
Rowley’s  Rise  of  the  People,  Bk.  I,  ch.  1-2;  Stubbs’s  Constitutional  History  of  England, 
I,  ch.  12,  and  II,  ch.  14;  Taswell-Langmead’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  ch.  4; 
Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  XXIX  (John). 

1  Freeman  classes  Stephen  with  the  Norman  kings,  but  Stubbs  treats  him  as  a  Plantagenet. 


1 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Henry  III  <1216-1272).  —  Accession  and  Character  (§  256);  Reissue  of  the  Great  Charter 
(§§  257,  262);  Henry’s  Extravagance  (§  258);  His  Church-Building  (§  259);  Religious  Refor¬ 
mation  ;  The  Mendicant  Friars;  Roger  Bacon  (§  260);  Roger  Bacon’s  Work  (§  260);  The 
“  Mad  Parliament  ”  (§  261) ;  The  Provisions  of  Oxford  (§  261) ;  Renewal  of  the  Great  Charter 
(§  262) ;  Growing  Feeling  of  Discontent  (§  263);  Civil  War  ;  Battle  of  Lewes  (§  264) ;  Simon 
de  Montfort’s  Parliament  (§  265);  Rise  of  the  House  of  Commons ,  1263  (§§  265,  267,  269); 
Earl  Simon’s  Death  (§  266). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  3,  sect.  5-7;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  9;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  I,  ch.  4  ;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  13;  Stubbs’s  Early  Plantagenets, 
ch.  8-9;  Stubbs’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  II,  ch.  14;  Hutton’s  English  History 
by  Contemporary  Writers  (Simon  of  Montfort) ;  Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography, 
XXXVIII  (Montfort). 

Edward  I  (1272-1307). — The  Crusades  (§268);  Edzuard's  u Model  Parliament,"  1293 
(§§  269,  280);  Conquest  of  Wales;  Birth  of  the  First  Prince  of  Wales  (§  270);  Conquest  of 
Scotland;  The  Stone  of  Scone  (§  271);  Confirmation  of  the  C har ter s,  1297-  1299  (§272); 
Parliament’s  Power  over  Taxation  (§  272);  Revolt  and  Death  of  Wallace  (§  273) ;  Expulsion 
of  the  Jews  (§  274);  Death  of  Queen  Eleanor  (§  275);  Edward’s  Reforms;  Statute  of 
Winchester  (§  276);  Important  Land  Legislation  (§§  277-278);  Legislation  respecting  the 
Church  ;  Statute  of  Mortmain  (§  278);  Death  of  Edward  (§  279). 

See  Green’s  England,  ch.  4,  sect.  1-5;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  10;  Traill’s  Social  Eng¬ 
land,  II,  ch.  5;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  14;  Rowley’s  Rise  of  the  People,  Bk.  I, 
ch.  4;  Stubbs's  Early  Plantagenets,  ch.  10-11;  Stubbs’s  Constitutional  History  of  England, 
II,  ch.  15;  Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  XVII  (Edward  I). 

Edward  II  (1307-1327).  —  Accession  and  Character  (§  281);  Piers  Gaveston ;  The  Lords 
Ordainers ;  Articles  of  Reform  (§  282);  The  House  of  Commons  gains  a  Share  in  Legis¬ 
lation  (§  282);  Scotland  regains  its  Independence  ;  Battle  of  Bannockburn  (§  283) ;  The  New 
Favorites;  The  Despensers  ;  The  King  made  Prisoner  (§  284) ;  Edward  II  deposed  (§§285, 
286) ;  Murder  of  the  King  (§  285). 

See  Green's  English  People,  ch.  4,  sect.  5;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  n;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  II,  ch.  5  :  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  14  ;  Stubbs’s  Early  Plantagenets,  ch.  12. 

Edward  III  (1327-1377).  —  Edward's  Accession  (§  287)  ;  The  Rise  of  English  Commerce ; 
l Cool  Manufacture,  1339  (§  288);  Begvming  of  the  Hundred  Years'  IVar,  1338  (§  289); 
Battle  of  Crecy  (§290);  The  “Black  Prince”  (§  290);  English  Bowmen  (§  290);  Use  of 
Cannon,  1346  (§  291);  Chivalry  (§  291);  Edward  takes  Calais  (§  292);  Victory  of  Poitiers 
(§  293) ;  Peace  of  Br^tigny  (§  294);  Effects  of  the  French  Wars  in  England  (§  295);  The 
King  may  hold  the  Sword,  but  the  People  hold  the  Purse  (§  295) ;  House  of  Commons  gains 
Power  of  Impeachment  (§§  295,  299) ;  The  Black  Death  and  its  Effect  on  Labor ,  1349  (§  296) ; 
Statute  of  Laborers  (§  297)  ;  Beginning  of  English  Literature ,  1369-/377,  Mandeville, 
Laiigland,  \\ry  cliff e  (§  298) ;  The  “  Good  Parliament  ”  (§  299) ;  Edward’s  Death  (§  299). 

See  Green's  English  People,  ch.  5,  sect.  1-2;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  12  ;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  II,  ch.  5—6 ;  Gardiner's  Student’s  England,  ch.  15-16  ;  Cheyney’s  Industrial  Eng¬ 
land,  ch.  4-5;  Ashley’s  English  History  by  Contemporary  Writers  (Edward  III);  Warbur- 
ton’s  Edward  III;  Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  XVII  (Edward  III). 

Richard  II  ( I377-I399''  •  —  Richard’s  Accession  (§  301) ;  The  New  Tax  (Poll  Tax)  (§  302); 
Wat  Tyler  and  John  Ball's  I  nsurrectioji  (§§  302-304);  Violence  in  London  (§  303);  End  of 
the  Rebellion  (§  304) ;  Beginning  of  the  End  of  V illeinage  (§  304) ;  Chaucer's  Canterbury 
Tales  (§  305);  Wycliffe's  Work  (§§  306,  307) ;  The  First  English  Bible  (§306);  The  Lollards 
(§  3°7) ;  Wycliffe’s  Remains  burned  (§  307);  Richard’s  Misgovernment ;  the  “Merciless 
Parliament”  (§  308) ;  Richard  deposed  and  murdered  (§  309). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  5,  sect.  4-5 ;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  13  ;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  II,  ch.  6;  Gardiner’s  Student's  England,  ch.  17-18;  Cheyney’s  Industrial  Eng¬ 
land,  ch.  5,  sect.  30 ;  Gairdner’s  Lancaster  and  York,  ch.  2. 

General  View  of  the  Angevin,  or  Plantagenet,  Period  (1154-1399)  [§§  3i»-33°] 

See  Traill’s  Social  England,  I,  ch.  4,  and  II,  ch.  5-6;  Knight’s  Pictorial  England,  I, 
Bk.  IV;  Cheyney’s  Industrial  England,  ch.  1-5;  Taswell-Langmead’s  Constitutional  History 
of  England,  ch.  7-8. 


A  SUMMARY  OF  HISTORY  TOPICS 


li 


VII.  The  Self-Destruction  of  Feudalism  (Lancaster  ks.  York) 

Henry  IV  (I399-I4i3)*  —  Henry’s  Accession  (§  331);  Conspiracy  to  restore  Richard  II  ; 
Owen  Glendower’s  Rebellion  (§  332) ;  Revolt  of  the  Percies  (§  333) ;  The  House  of  Com¬ 
mons  gets  the  Exclusive  Right  of  making  all  Grants  of  Money  (§  333)  ;  Battle  of 
Shrewsbury  (§  334);  Persecution  of  the  Lollards ;  Statute  of  Heresy ,  14.01 ;  the  First 
Martyr  (§  335) ;  Henry’s  Last  Days  (§  336). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  5,  sect.  6 ;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  14;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  II,  7;  Gai'diner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  19;  Gairdner’s  Lancaster  and  York,  ch.4. 

Henry  V  (1413-1422). —  Lollard  Outbreak  at  Henry’s  Accession  (§  338);  Report  that 
Richard  II  was  alive  (§  339);  War  with  France,  1415  (§  340);  Battle  of  Agincourt  (§  341)  ; 
Treaty  of  Troyes ;  France  submits  to  He?iry ;  Revolt  in  France  (§  342);  Henry’s  Death 

(§  342)- 

See  Green's  English  People,  ch.  5,  sect.  6;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  15;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  II,  7;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  19;  Gairdner’s  Lancaster  and  York,  ch.  5. 

Henry  VI  (1422-1471).  —  Accession  of  Henry  (§  344);  Renewal  of  the  French  War 
(§  344);  Siege  of  Orleans  (§  345);  Joan  of  Arc ,  142^1421  (§  346);  End  of  the  Hundred 
Years’  War  with  France,  1453  (§  346);  Henry’s  Character  (§  347)  ;  He  marries  Margaret  of 
Anjou  (§  347) ;  Poverty  of  the  Crown  and  Wealth  of  the  Nobles  (§  348) ;  Power  of  the  Earl 
of  Warwick  (§  348)  ;  Disfranchisement  of  the  Common  People,  1430  (§  349) ;  Cade’s  Rebel¬ 
lion  (§  350)  ;  Wars  of  the  Roses  (1455-1485);  The  Scene  in  the  Temple  Garden  ;  The  Object 
of  the  War  (§§  351-353) ;  Battles  of  St.  Albans,  Wakefield,  Towton  (§§  354-355) ;  Henry  sent 
a  Prisoner  to  the  Tower,  Edward  IV  placed  on  the  Throne  (§  355). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  6,  sect.  1,  2;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  16;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  II,  ch.  7;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  20-21;  Gairdner's  Lancaster  and 
York,  ch.  7;  Thompson’s  English  History  by  Contemporary  Writers;  the  Wars  of  York 
and  Lancaster. 

Edward  IV  (1461-1483).  —  Continuation  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  (§  357);  Battle  of 
Barnet  and  Tewkesbury  (§  357);  Death  of  Henry  VI  (§  357);  Caxton  introduces  Printing , 
I47l  (§  358) ;  Edward  IV’s  Character  (§  359)  ;  How  he  extorted  “  Benevolences  ”  (§  359). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  6,  sect.  3;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  17;  TrailJZs-Social 
England,  II,  ch.  7;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  22;  Gairdner’s  Lancaster  and  York, 
ch.  8. 

Edward  V  (1483).  —  Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  appointed  Protector  of  Prince  Edward 
(§  361) ;  Plot  of  Richard  to  seize  the  Crown  (§  362) ;  Richard  murders  Lord  Hastings  (§  362)  ; 
Murder  of  Prince  Edzvard  a?id  his  Brother  (§  362). 

See  reference  books  below,  under  Richard  III. 

Richard  III  (1483-1485).  — Richard’s  Accession  (§  364);  He  promises  Financial  Reform 
(§  364) ;  Richard’s  Character  (§  365)  ;  Revolt  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  (§  366) ;  Revolt  of 
Henry  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond  (§  366) ;  Battle  of  Bosworth  Field,  Richard  killed  (§  367)  ; 
E7id  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses ,  1485;  their  Effects  (§  368);  The  Feudal  Baronage  broken 
up  (§  368). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  6,  sect.  3;  Bright’s  England,  I,  ch.  19;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  II,  ch.  7;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  22  ;  Gairdner’s  Lancaster  and  York, 
ch.  9-10;  Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  XLVIII  (Richard  III). 

General  View  of  the  Lancastrian  and  Yorkist  Period  (1399-1485)  [§§370-378] 

See  Traill’s  .Social  England,  II,  ch.  7;  Knight’s  Pictorial  England,  II,  Bk.  V;  Stubbs’s 
Constitutional  History  of  England,  III,  ch.  21. 


VIII.  The  House  of  Tudor ;  Absolutism  of  the  Crown ;  the  English 
Reformation ;  the  New  Learning 

Henry  VII  (1485-1509).  —  Union  of  the  Houses  of  Lancaster  and  York  (§379)  ;  Condition 
of  the  Coutitry ;  Power  of  the  Crow?i  (§  380);  Growth  of  a  Stronger  Feeling  oj'  Nationality 
(§  381);  Henry’s  Methods  of  raising  Money  ;  “  Morton's  P'ork”;  Empson  and  Dudley,  the 
Statute  of  Liveries  (§  382);  The  Court  of  Star-Chamber  (§  382);  The  I ntroductio7i  of  Artil¬ 
lery  stre7igthens  the  Pozver  of  the  King  (§  383)  ;  The  Pretenders  Symnel  and  Warbeck 
(§  384);  Henry’s  Politic  Marriages  (§  385);  The  World  as  k7iow7i  at  He7iry's  Accessio7i, 
1483  (§  386);  First  Voyages  of  Exploration;  the  Cabots,  1497  (§  387);  Henry  VII’s  Reign 
the  Beginning  of  a  New  Epoch  (§  388). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  6,  sect.  3  ;  Bright’s  England,  II,  ch.  1;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  II,  ch.  8;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  23;  Moberly’s  Early  Tudors,  ch.  1-6. 


lii 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Henry  VIII  (1509-1547).  —  Henry  VIII's  Advantages  (§  390);  The  New  Learning ; 
Colet,  Erasmus ,  Afore  (§  391);  Henry  vs.  Luther  (§  392);  Victory  of  Flodden ;  “Field  of 
the  Cloth  of  Gold”  (§  393);  Henry’s  Marriage  with  Catharine  of  Aragon,  his  Brothers 
Widow  (§  394);  The  King’s  Anxiety  for  a  Successor ;  Anne  Boleyn  (§  395) ;  Cardinal  Wolsey 
favors  Henry’s  Divorce  from  Catharine  (§  396) ;  The  Court  of  Blackfriars  (§  397);  Fall  of 
Wolsey  (§  308);  Appeal  to  the  Universities  (§  399) ;  The  Clergy  declare  Henry  Head  of  the 
English  Church  (§  400);  Henry  rrmrries^Anne  Boleyn  (§  401)  ;  The  Act  of  Supremacy,  1534 
(§  401);  Subserviency  of  Parliament  (§  402);  Execution  of  More  and  Fisher  (§  403);  Sup¬ 
pression  of  the  Monasteries  and  Effects  ;  “  The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  ”  (§§  404-405) ;  Dis¬ 
tress  of  the  Laboring  Classes  (§  406);  Execution  of  Anne  Boleyn;  Marriage  with  Jane 
Seymour  (§  407) ;  More  Marriages  (§  408);  Henry's  Action  respecting  Religion  (§§  409-410); 
The  “Six  Articles”  (§409);  Heresy  vs.  Treason  (§410);  Henry’s  Death;  what  the  World 
owes  to  Henry  VIII  (§411). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  6,  sect.  4-6,  and  ch.  7,  sect.  1  ;  Bright’s  England,  II, 
ch.  2;  Traill’s  Social  England,  III,  ch.  9;  Gardiner’s  Student's  England,  ch.  24-26; 
Creighton’s  Tudors  and  the  Reformation,  Bk.  I,  ch.  2,  and  Bk.  II,  ch.  1-3;  Seebohm’s 
Protestant  Revolution,  Pt.  II,  ch.  2,  and  Pt.  Ill,  ch.  2  ;  Moberly’s  Early  Tudors,  ch.  7-16; 
Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  ch.  1  ;  Dictionary  of  National  (British) 
Biography,  XXVI  (Henry  VIII). 

Edward  VI  (1547—1553) . —  Somerset  Protector;  Bad  Government  (§  413);  Seizure  of 
Unenclosed  or  Common  Lands;  High  Rents;  Latimer’s  Sermon  (§  413);  Edward  VI 
establishes  Protestantism ,  134Q  (§414);  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  (§  414);  The  First 
and  Second  Acts  of  Uniformity  (§  414)  ;  King  Edward  and  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  (§415); 
Renewed  Confiscation  of  Church  Property  (§  416);  Protestant  Schools  founded  (§§  41(^-417); 
Effect  of  Catholicism  vs.  Protestantism  (§  418). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  7,  sect.  1 ;  Bright’s  England,  II,  ch.  3 ;  Traill’s  Social 
England.  Ill,  ch.  10;  Gardiner’s  Student's  England,  ch.  27;  Hallam’s  Constitutional 
History  of  England,  ch.  1. 

Mary  (1553-1558). —  Lady  Jane  Grey  claims  the  Crown  (§  420);  Mary  is  betrothed  to 
Philip  II  of  Spain  (§421);  Wyatt’s  Rebellion  (§  421);  Execution  of  Lady  Jane  Grey 
(§  421);  Mary  marries  Philip  II  of  Spain  (§  422);  Mary's  Efforts  to  restore  Catholicism 
(§$  422-424);  Devices  for  reading  the  Bible  (§  423)  ;  Religious  Toleratioyi  unknown  in 
Alary's  Age  (§  424) ;  Loss  of  Calais  (§  425) ;  Mary’s  Death  (§  425);  Alary  deserving  of  Pity 
rather  than  Hatred  (§  426). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  7,  sect.  2;  Bright’s  England,  II,  ch.  4;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  III,  ch .  10;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  27;  Strickland’s  Queens  of  England, 
4th  English  cd.,  Ill  (Mary);  Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  ch.  2;  Dictionary 
of  National  (British)  Biography,  XXXVI  (Mary). 

Elizabeth  (1558-1603). —  Accession  of  Elizabeth  (§  428) ;  Difficulty  of  Elizabeth' s  Posi¬ 
tion  (§  429);  Religious  Parties,  Puritans  vs.  Jesuits  (§  430);  The  Queen’s  Choice  of  Coun¬ 
sellors  (§  431);  Sir  William  Cecil,  Lord  Burleigh  (§  431);  The  Coronation  (§  432);  The 
English  Service-Book  reinstated  (§  433) ;  The  Third  Act  of  Uniformity  (§  433) ;  The  High 
Commission  Court  instituted  (§  433) ;  Reenactment  of  the  Act  of  Supremacy  (§  434) ;  The 
Thirty-Nine  Articles  (§  435) ;  The  Queen’s  Religion  (§  435) ;  The  Nation  halting  between 
Catholicism  and  Protestantism  (§  436) ;  The  Question  of  the  Queen’s  Marriage  (§  437) ;  The 
Queen  a  Coquette ;  her  Violence  of  Temper ;  her  Crooked  Policy  (§§  438-439) ;  her 
Knowledge  of  Men  (§  440) ;  The  Monopolies  (§  440) ;  The  Adulation  of  the  Court  (§  441); 
Grandeur  of  the  Age  (§§  442,  443);  More’s  “Utopia”  (§  442);  Change  in  Mode  of  Life 
(§  443) ;  An  Age  of  Adventure  and  of  Daring  (§  444)  ;  Literature ,  Spenser ,  Shakespeare , 
Jonson ,  Bacon  (§  445);  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  claims  the  Crown  (§  446);  Murder  of  Lord 
Damley  (§447);  Mary  escapes  to  England  and  is  imprisoned  (§  448) ;  Plots  against  Eliza¬ 
beth  and  against  Protestantism  (§  448) ;  Elizabeth  beheads  Mary  (§  449) ;  The  Spanish 
Armada  and  its  Destruction ,  1388  (§§  450-453);  Insurrection  in  Ireland  (§  454);  The  First 
Poor  Law  (§  455) ;  Elizabeth’s  Death  *(§  456). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  7,  sect.  3-8  ;  Bright’s  England,  II,  ch.  6-8 ;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  III,  ch.  11-12;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  28-30;  Creighton’s  Age  of 
Elizabeth,  Bk.  IV,  ch.  1-2,  and  Bk.  VI,  ch.  2  ;  Macaulay’s  Essay  on  Lord  Burleigh ;  Strick¬ 
land’s  Queens  of  England,  4th  English  ed.,  IV  (Elizabeth);  Dictionary  of  National  (British) 
Biography,  XVII  (Elizabeth) ;  Creighton’s  Tudors  and  the  Reformation,  Bk.  Ill,  ch.  3,  and 
Bk.  IV,  ch.  1-3  ;  Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  ch.  3-5. 


General  View  of  the  Tudor  Period  (1485-1603)  [§§  458-466] 

£ee  Traill’s  Social  England,  II,  ch.  8,  and  III,  ch.  9-12;  Knight’s  Pictorial  England, 
II,  Bk.  VI ;  Taswell-Langmead’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  ch.  10-12. 


A  SUMMARY  OF  HISTORY  TOPICS 


liii 


IX.  The  House  of  Stuart;  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings  ks.  the  Divine 
Right  of  the  People  (1603-1649)  [the  Commonwealth  (1649-1660)] 
(1660-1714) 


Tames  I  (1603-1625).  —  Accession  of  James  I  (§  467);  The  King’s  Appearance  and 
Character  (S  468)  ;  The  Great  Puritan  Petition  (§  469)  ;  The  Hampton  Court  Conference 

‘  ^  ^  ,r.  ,1  .1.1  _ Ill  _ l.„  *1,  „  /.nnfftrm  (&  nn)  •  T /Tin PC  bvn. 


(S  474 );  The  Colonization  of  Ireland  (§  475) ;  The  “Addled  Parliament  ;  lhe  New  Stand 
taken  bv  the  House  of  Commons, — no  Reforms,  no  Cash  (§  476);  Jo  raise  Money,  Janies 
creates  Baronets  and  makes  Knighthood  Compulsory  (§  476) ;  Impeachment  of  Lord  Bacon 
(§  477 ) ;  Execution  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  (§  478)  i  Death  of  James  (§  4791- 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  8,  sect.  1-4;  Bright’s  England,  II,  ch  9;  Traill’s  Social 
England  IV,  ch.  13;  Gardiner's  Student’s  England,  ch.  31;  Gardiners  Stuarts  and  the 
Puritan  Revolution,  ch.  1-3  ;  National  Dictionary  of  (British)  Biography,  XXIX  (James  I). 

Charles  I  (1625-1649). —  Accession  of  Charles  I  (§  481);  Result  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Divine  Right  of  Kings  (§  481) ;  The  King's  Character  (§  481) ;  The  King  s  Two  Mistakes  at 
the  Outset  — he  retains  Buckingham,  he  marries  Henrietta  Maria  (§  482);  lhe  Kings 
Conflict 'with  Parliament  (§§  482-486);  The  King  extorts  Loans  (§  4S3) ;  The  Petition  of 
Right,  1628  (§§484-485);  Charles  revives  Monopolies  (§485);  Eliots  Remonstrance 
(§‘486);  The  King  rules  without  Parliament  (§487);  Wentworth's  “Thorough  (§487); 
Laud’s  Religious  Tyranny  (§  487) ;  The  Declaration  of  Sunday  Sports  (§  487) ;  Ship  Money  ; 
John  Hampden,  ibt7  (§§488-489);  The  Difficulty  with  the  Scottish  Church  (§490);  The 
Long  Parliament ,  1640  (§491);  Impeachment  of  Strafford  and  Laud  (§  49i);  Parliament 
abolishes  the  Star-Chamber  and  the  High  Commission  Court  (§  491);  lhe  1  rienmal  Act 
(§  401) ;  The  Grand  Remonstrance  (§  491);  The  “  Root  and  Branch  Bill '  (§  490  !  Charles  s 
Attempted  Arrest  of  the  Five  Members  (§  492) ;  The  Great  Civil  War,  76,72-/6.79  (§§  493  59°)  j 
Cavaliers  and  Roundheads  (§  494)  i  How  the  Country  was  divided  (§  495) ;  Rise  of  Political 
Newspapers  (§  495);  The  Excise  Tax  (§  495):  Cromwell’s  “Ironsides  (§  496);  the 
“New  Model5’  Army  (§  496)  ;  Death  of  Hampden  (§496);  Parliament  signs  the  Scottish 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant  (§496);  Battles  of  Marston  Moor  and  Naseby  (§  497);  I  he 
King’s  Private  Papers  found  at  Naseby  (§  497) ;  The  King  takes  Refuge  with  the  boots 
(S  498) ;  The  Scots  surrender  Charles  to  Parliament  (§  498) ;  Charles’s  Secret  T  reaty  with 
the  Scots  (§  499);  The  Second  Civil  War  (§  499);  Pride’s  Purge  (§  499) ;  Execution  of  the 
King  (§500). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  8,  sect.  4-8;  Bright’s  England,  II,  ch  10  ;  Traill  s 
Social  England,  IV,  ch.  13-14;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  32-35;  Gardiner  s  Stuarts 
and  the  Puritan  Revolution,  ch.  4-7  ;  Hallam’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  ch.  7-10 , 
Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  X  (Charles  I). 


The  Commonwealth  and  Protectorate  (1649-1660) 

Establishment  of  the  Commonwealth ,  or  Republic  ;  the  “ Rump  Parliament  (§  52?); 
Abolition  of  Monarchy  and  of  the  House  of  Lords  (§  502);  Radical  Changes  (§  503);  l  he 
Use  of  the  English  Church  Service  forbidden  (§  503)  ;  The  New  Great  Seal  (§  503) ;  Diffi¬ 
culties  of  the  New  Republic  (§  504);  Royalists,  Presbyterians,  “  Levellers,  Communists 
($  504);  Prince  Charles  proclaimed  King  in  Ireland  and  in  Scotland  (§  505) ;  lhe  Battles  ot 
Dunbar  and  of  Worcester  (§  505) ;  Cromwell  expels  the  “Rump  Parliament  ’  (§  5°°)  5 
Cromwell  becomes  Protector ,  165J  (§  5°7)  i  The  “  Instrument  of  Government  and  the 
“  Humble  Petition  and  Advice”  (§  507);  Cromwell  declines  the  Crown  (§  507) ;  Emigration 
of  Royalists  to  America;  Ancestors  of  George  Washington  (§  508);  Cromwell  as  a  Ruler 
($509);  Puritan  Fanaticism  (§509);  Cromwell's  Religious  Toleration  (§  510);  The  Muti¬ 
lation  of  Statues,  Tombs,  and  Windows  in  Churches  (§  510);  Victories  by  Land  and  bea 
(§  511) ;  The  Navigation  Act  (§  51 1) ;  The  Dutch  beaten  at  Sea  (§  511) ;  Cromwell  s  Death  ; 
his  Character  (§  512) ;  The  Times  needed  Such  a  Man  (§  513). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  8,  sect.  9-10;  Bright’s  England,  II,  ch.  11;  Traill’s 
Social  England,  IV,  ch.  14;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  36;  Gardiner’s  Puritan  Revo¬ 
lution,  ch.  8-10;  The  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  VI  (Cromwell);  Dictionary  of  National 
(British)  Biography,  XIII  (Cromwell). 

Richard  Cromwell  (1658-1659).  —  Richard  Cromwell’s  Incompetency  (§  515);  He 
abdicates  (§  516) ;  General  Monk  (§  517) ;  End  of  the  “Long  Parliament  ”  (§  517);  The  Con¬ 
vention  Parliament  ”  meets  and  invites  Charles  Stuart  to  return  (§  517)  ;  The  Declaration 
of  Breda  (§51 7). 

See  reference  books  under  the  preceding  section. 


liv 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Charles  II  (1660-1685).  —  The  Restoration  of  the  Monarchy;  Accession  of  Charles  II 
(§  519);  A  New  Standing  Army  (§  519);  The  Kings  Character  (§  520);  Reaction  from 
Puritanism  (§  521);  The  Royal  Favorites  (§  522);  The  “  Cabal”  1667-1673  (§  522);  Punish¬ 
ment  of  the  Regicides  (§  523)  ;  Religious  Persecution  (§  524);  The  Corporation  Act ;  the 
Fourth  Act  0/  Uniformity ;  the  Conventicle  Act ;  the  Five-Mile  Act  (§  524);  Hunting 
down  the  Covenanters  (§  524) ;  John  Bunyan  (§  524);  Seizure  of  a  Dutch  Colony  in  America 
(§  525);  The  Great  Plague  (§  526);  The  Great  Fire  (§  526);  Sir  Christopher  Wren’s  Work 
($;  526) ;  Invasion  by  the  Dutch  (§  527);  Secret  Treaty  of  Dover  (§  528) ;  The  King  robs  the 
Exchequer  (§  528);  The  Declaration  of  Indulgence  (§  529);  The  Test  Act  (§  529);  The 
So-Called  “ Popish  Plot,”  Titus  Oates  (§  530);  The  Exclusion  Bill  (§  530);  The  Disabling 
Act  (§  530);  Political  Parties,  Whigs  and  Tories  (§  531);  The  King  revokes  City  Charters 
(§  531);  The  Rye-House  Plot  (§  532);  Execution  of  Sidney  and  Russell  (§532);  I'he  Royal 
Society  founded  (§  533);  Newton’s  Work  (§  533);  Political  Reforms;  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act,  Abolition  of  Feudal  Dues  (§  534) ;  Death  of  Charles  (§  535). 

See  Green's  English  People,  ch.  9,  sect.  1-6;  Bright’s  England,  II,  ch.  12;  Traill’s 
Social  England,  IV,  ch.  15;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  37-40;  Taylor’s  English 
History  by  Contemporary  Writers  (Charles  II)  ;  Taswell-Langmead's  Constitutional  His¬ 
tory  of  England,  ch.  15  ;  Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  X  (Charles  II). 

James  II  (1685-1689).  —  His  Two  Objects:  to  rule  independently  of  Parliament,  to 
restore  the  Roman  Catholic  Religion  in  England  (§  537);  Monmouth' s  Rebellion  ;  Battle  of 
Sedge  moor ,  1683  (§  538);  The  “  Bloody  Assizes”  (§  539);  The  King’s  Further  Attempts  to 
restore  Catholicism ;  he  suspends  the  Test  Act  (§  540) ;  Tyrconnel  and  Lilli  Burlero  (§  540) ; 
James  issues  a  Declaration  of  Indulgence  (§§  540-541);  James  and  Magdalen  College 
(§  540);  The  Petition  of  the  Seven  Bishops  (§  541);  Birth  of  Prince  James  Edward,  the 
“  Old  Pretender  ”  (§§  542-543)  ;  Invitation  to  William ,  Prince  of  Orange,  to  come  to  Eng¬ 
land ,  1688  (§  542);  The  Coming  of  William  and  Flight  of  James  (§  543);  Character  of  the 
Revolution  of  1688  (§  544). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  9,  sect.  6-7;  Bright’s  England,  II,  ch.  13:  Traill’s 
Social  England,  IV,  ch.  15-16;  Gardiner’s  Student's  England,  ch.41;  Hale’s  Fall  of  the 
Stuarts,  ch.  7—13  ;  Fea’s  “  King  Monmouth”;  Hallam's  Constitutional  History  of  England, 
ch.  14;  Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  XXIX  (James  II). 

William  and  Mary  (1689-1702).  — The  “  Convention  Parliament  ”  (§  546)  ;  The  Declara¬ 
tion  of  Right  (§  546);  Jacobites  and  Non-Jurors  (§  547);  The  Mutiny  Act  (§  548);  The 
Toleration  Act  (§  548) ;  The  Bill  of  Rights,  ibSq  (§  549) ;  The  Act  of  Settlement,  1701  (§  549); 
The  “  Bible  of  English  Liberty  ”  (§  549);  Benefits  of  the  Revolution  (§  550);  Liberty  of  the 
Press  (§  550) ;  James  II  lands  in  Ireland  (§  551)  ;  The  Great  Act  of  Attainder  (§  551);  Siege 
of  Londonderry  (§  551);  Battle  of  the  Boyne,  ibqo  (§  551);  Peace  of  Limerick  (§  551);  Battle 
of  La  Hogue  (§  551) ;  Massacre  of  Glencoe  (§  551)  ;  Peace  of  Rvswick  (§  551);  Beginning  of 
the  Permanent  National  Debt,  i6qj  (§  552);  Establishment  of  the  Bank  of  England,  ibq^ 
(§  552);  William’s  Death  (§  553). 

See  Green's  English  People,  ch.  9,  sect.  7-9;  Bright’s  England,  III,  ch.  1;  Traill’s 
Social  England,  IV,  ch.  ;6  ;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  42-43;  Rowley’s  Settlement 
of  the  Constitution,  Bk.  I,  ch.  1-5  ;  Cheyney’s  Industrial  and  Social  England,  ch.  7,  sect.  53; 
Strickland's  Queens  of  England,  4th  English  ed.,  VII  (Mary) ;  Hallam's  Constitutional  History 
of  England,  ch.  14-15;  Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  LXI  (William  III). 

Anne  (1702-1714).  — Accession  and  Character  of  Anne  (§  555) ;  The  Divine  Right  of  Kings 
again  (§  555);  Touching  for  the  ‘‘King's  Evil”  (§  555);  Whig  and  Tory  (§  556);  High 
Church  vs.  Low  (§  556) ;  The  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  1702  (§  557);  What  Eng¬ 
land  had  at  Stake  in  the  War  (§  557) ;  The  Duke  of  Marlborough  as  a  Soldier  (§  558); 
Blenheim  and  Other  Victories  (§  558);  The  Powers  behind  the  Throne;  Jennings  vs ■. 
Masham  (§§  559-560);  Dr.  Sacheverell’s  Sermons  (§  560);  The  “  Divine  Right  of  Kings" 
once  more  (§  560) ;  The  Tories  drive  the  Whigs  from  Power  (§  560)  ;  The  Peace  of  Utrecht, 
1713  (§  562)';  Union  of  England  and  Scotland,  1707  (§  562);  Origin  of  the  ‘‘Union  Jack’’ 
(§  562);  Literature  of  the  Period ,  Addison,  Defoe,  Pope  (§  563)  ;  The  First  Daily  News¬ 
paper,  1703  (§  563) ;  The  Spectator  (§  563);  Death  of  the  Queen  (§  564). 

See  Green's  English  People,  ch.  o,  sect.  9-10;  Bright’s  England,  III,  ch.  2;  Traill's 
Social  England,  IV,  ch.  16;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  44;  Morris’s  Age  of  Anne, 
ch.  7,  13,  15,  21,  22  ;  Strickland’s  Queens  of  England,  4th  English  ed.,  VIII  (Anne);  Dic¬ 
tionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  I  (Anne). 

General  View  of  the  Stuart  Period  (1603-1649)  [Commonwealth  (1649-1660)] 

.  (1660-1714)  [§§  556-580] 

See  Traill’s  Social  England,  IV,  ch.  13-16;  Knight's  Pictorial  England,  III,  Bk.  VII— 
VIII  and  IV,  Bk.  IX,  ch.  1;  Taswell-Langmead's  Constitutional  History  of  England,^ 
ch.  13-15. 


A  SUMMARY  OF  HISTORY  TOPICS 


lv 


X.  India  gained  ;  America  lost ;  Parliamentary  Reform;  Government  by 
the  People ;  the  House  of  Hanover  (1714)  to  the  Present  Time 


George  I  (1714-1727). — Accession  of  George  I  (§  5S1) ;  Triumph  of  the  Whigs;  they 
impeach  the  Tory  Leaders  (§  581);  The  Whigs  repeal  Harsh  Religious  Tory  Statutes 
(§  581);  Character  of  the  King  (§  582) ;  George  l’s  Three  Good  Qualities  (§  582) ;  Origin  of 
Cabinet  Government  (§  583);  Robert  Walpole  the  First  Prime  Minister  (§  583);  The 
“  Old  Pretender  the  Rebellion  0/1713;  Battle  0/  Sheriff muir  (§  584);  The  Septennial 
Act  (§  584);  The  South  Sea  Bubble  (§  585);  How  a  Terrible  Disease  was  conquered;  Lady 
Montagu’s  Work  ;  Dr.  Jenner’s  Work  (§586);  How  Robert  Walpole  governed;  his  Main 
Objects;  his  System  of  Bribery  (§  587). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  9,  sect.  10;  Bright's  England,  III,  ch.  3  ;  Traill’s  Social 
England,  V,  ch.  17;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  45;  Morris’s  Early  Hanoverians, 
ch.  4,  s,  8,  9;  Rowley’s  Settlement  of  the  Constitution,  Bk.  Ill,  ch.  1-2;  Thackeray’s  Four 
Georges  (George  I). 

George  11(1727-1760).  —  Accession  and  Character  (§  589);  Robert  Walpole  remains  in 
Power  (§  589) ;  The  “  War  of  Jenkins’s  Ear’’  with  Spain  (§  590) ;  War  of  the  Austrian  Suc¬ 
cession,  1741-1748;  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  1748  (§  591);  Invasion  by  the  “ Young  Pre¬ 
tender/  17451  Battle  of  Culloden  (§  592);  Clive's  Victories  in  India  ;  the  Black  Hole  of 
Calcutta  ;  the  Battle  of  Plassey,  1737  (§  593) ;  New  .Style  vs.  Old  (§  594);  The  Seven  Years’ 
War  in  Europe  and  America,  1756-1763  (§  594);  Braddock’s  Defeat  (§  594);  Pittsburgh 
(§  594);  The  Acadians  (§  594) ;  Wolfe  takes  Quebec,  1759  (§  594);  English  Possessions  in  the 
East,  the  West ,  and  the  South  (§  594);  What  Daniel  Webster  said  of  her  “  Morning  Drum- 
Beat  ”  (§  594)  ;  Moral  Condition  of  England  (§  595) ;  Intemperance  (§  595)  ;  Rise  and  Work 
of  the  Methodists ,  173Q  (§  595). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  9,  sect.  10,  and  ch.  10,  sect.  1;  Bright’s  England,  III, 
ch.  4;  Traill's  Social  England,  V,  ch.  17-18;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  45-47; 
Morris’s  Early  Hanoverians,  Bk.  I,  ch.  13,  15;  Bk.  II,  ch.  3,  5,  6,  9,  11;  Bk.  Ill,  ch.  1  ; 
Rowley’s  Settlement  of  the  Constitution,  Bk.  IV,  ch.  1-3.  Macaulay’s  Essays  (Robert 
Clive) ;  Seeley’s  Expansion  of  England. 

George  III  (1760-1820). — Accession  and  Character  (§  597);  The  King’s  Struggle  with 
the  Whigs  (§  597);  George  Ill’s  Policy  of  Governing  (§  597);  Taxation  of  the  American 
Colonies  (§  598) ;  Political  Liberty  of  the  Colonists ;  Commercial  and  Manufacturing 
Restrictions  imposed  on  the  Colonists  (§  598);  The  Stamp  Act,  1763  ;  the  “ Brains  of  Par¬ 
liament"  for  the  Colonists ;  what  Pitt  declared  (§  599);  The  Tea  Tax  and  the  “Boston 
Tea-Party,”  1773,  with  its  Results  (§  600);  Four  Severe  Acts  of  Parliament  (§  600);  The 
American  Revolution,  1775;  Declaration  of  Independence,  1776;  George  III  acknowledges 
American  Independence  (§  601) ;  The  Lord  George  Gordon  Riots  (§  602);  Impeachment  of 
Warren  Hastings  (§  603);  Liberty  of  the  Press  secured ;  Wilkes  and  “ Junius  ”  (§  604); 
Law  and  Prison  Reforms  (§  604) ;  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade  (§  604) ;  War  with  France  ; 
Nelson;  Battles  of  the  Nile  and  Trafalgar  (§  605) ;  Second  War  with  the  United  States , 
1812-1813  (§  606);  Battle  of  Waterloo ,  18/3  (§  607);  Enormous  Increase  of  the  National 
Debt  (§  608) ;  Sydney  Smith  on  English  Taxation  (§  608) ;  The  Irish  Parliament ;  The  Irish 
Rebellion  of  1798  (§  609);  Union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  in  1800  (§  609);  Material 
Progress  ;  Canals  ;  the  Steam  Engine  (§  610);  Distress  of  the  Working  Class  ;  Ludd’s  Insur¬ 
rection  (§610);  How  Steam  affected  the  North  of  England  (§  610);  Discovery  of  Oxygen ; 
Introduction  of  Gas;  the  Safety  Lamp  (§611);  Steam  Navigation  (§611);  Literature; 
Art  (§  612);  Education  (§  612);  Change  in  Dress  (§  612);  Last  Days  of  George  III;  the 
Prince  of  Wales  appointed  Regent  (§  613). 

See  Green’s  English  People,  ch.  10,  sect.  1-4;  Bright’s  England,  III,  ch.  5;  Traill’s 
Social  England,  V,  ch.  18-20,  and  VI,  ch.  21;  Gardiner’s  Student’s  England,  ch.  48-55; 
Rowley’s  Settlement  of  the  Constitution,  Bk.  V,  ch.  1-2;  Ludlow's  American  Revolution, 
ch.  3-6;  Tancock's  American  and  European  Wars,  1765-1820;  Cheyney’s  Industrial  and 
Social  England  (The  Industrial  Revolution),  ch.  8,  sect.  55;  May's  Constitutional  History 
of  England,  I,  ch.  1,  and  II,  ch.  9,  17;  Thackeray's  Four  Georges  (George  III);  National 
Dictionary  of  (British)  Biography,  XXI  (George  III). 

George  IV  (1820-1830). — Accession  and  Character  (§615);  Discontent  and  Conspiracy 
(§616);  The  “Manchester  Massacre”  (§  616);  The  “Six  Acts  ”  (§  616);  Queen  Caroline 
(§  617)  ;  Three  Reforms  ;  Repeal  of  the  Corporation  and  the  Test  Acts  ;  Catholic  Emanci¬ 
pation  (§  618);  The  New  Police  (§  619) ;  Death  of  the  King  (§  620). 

See  Bright’s  England,  III,  ch.  6 ;  Traill’s  Social  England,  VI,  ch.  21 ;  Gardiner’s  Stu¬ 
dent’s  England,  ch.  55-56;  Browning’s  Modern  England,  Bk.  I,  ch.  1-4,  and  Bk.  II,  ch.  1-3  ; 
Thackeray’s  Four  Georges  (George  IV);  Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biography,  XXI 
(George  IV). 


lvi 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


William  IV  (1830-1837). — Accession  and  Character  (§  622);  Need  of  Parliamentary 
Reform  (§  623);  “Rotten  Boroughs  ”(§  623);  The  Reform  BUI ,  1832  (§  624);  Passage  of 
the  BUI  (§  624);  Results  (§  625);  Abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  British  West  Indies  (§  626*; 
Factory  Reform  (§  626);  Macadam’s  Improved  Roads  (§  627);  The  First  Steam  Railway, 
1830  (§  627) ;  The  Railway  Craze  (§  627) ;  Invention  of  the  Friction  Match  (§  627). 

See  Bright's  England.  Ill,  ch.  7;  Traill’s  Social  England,  VI,  ch.  21-22;  Browning’s 
Modem  England,  Bk.  Ill,  ch.  1-4;  May’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  I,  ch.  6 
(.the  Reform  Bill) ;  Smiles’s  Life  of  George  Stephenson  (the  inventor  of  the  locomotive). 

Victoria  (1837-1901).  —  The  Queen’s  Descent;  Stability  of  the  English  Government 
(§  629);  The  House  of  Commons  Supreme  (§  630);  Sketch  of  the  Peerage  (§  631);  The 
Queen’s  Marriage  (§  632) ;  Postal  Reforms  (§  633) ;  Rise  of  the  Chartists ;  their  Demands 
(§  ^34) ;  The  Cora  Laws  (§§635-636)  ;  The  Irish  Famine  (§636)  ;  Repeal  of  the  Com  Laws 
(§  636);  Free  Trade  (§  636);  The  World’s  Fair  (§  637):  Repeal  of  the  Window  and  the 
Newspaper  Tax  (§  637);  The  Atlantic  Cable  (§  637);  The  Chinese  Opium  War  (§  638); 
The  Crimean  War  (§  638) ;  The  Rebellion  in  India  (§  638) ;  Death  of  Prince  Albert  (§  639) ; 
The  American  Civil  War;  the  Trent  Affair;  the  Alabama  ;  the  Geneva  Award  (§  639); 
Municipal  Reform  (§  640) ;  Woman  Suffrage  (§640);  Jews  admitted  to  Parliament  (*§  640) ; 
The  Second  Reform  Act ,  1867  (§  640) ;  The  Third  Reform  Act ,  1884  (§  640)  ;  County  and 
Parish  Councils  (§  640);  Abolition  of  Compulsory  Church  Rates  (§  641)  ;  Disestablishment 
of  the  Irish  Episcopal  Church  (§  641) ;  The  Education  Acts ,  1870-1891  (§  641);  The  First 
Irish  Land  Act,  1870  (§  642) ;  Distress  in  Ireland  (§  643)  ;  The  Irish  Land  League  (§643); 
The  Second  Irish  Land  Act,  1881  (§644);  Fenian  and  Communist  Outrages  (§644);  The 
Leading  Names  in  Science,  Literature,  and  Art  (§  645)  ;  Darwin's  Work  (§  645) ;  Grove's 
Experiments  (§  645);  The  Queen's  Jubilee,  1887;  her  “Diamond  Jubilee,”  1897  (§646); 
Review  of  Sixty  Years  of  English  History,  1837-1897  (§§  646-656);  The  Broadening  of  the 
Basis  of  Suffrage ,  1832-1894  (§  647);  Overthrow  of  the  “  Spoils  System”  (§  648);  Reform 
in  the  Army  (§  648) ;  The  Secret  Ballot  (§  648) ;  Reform  in  Law  Procedure  and  in  the 
Administration  of  Justice  (§  649);  The  Court  of  Chancery  (§  649);  Reform  in  the  Treatment 
of  the  Insane  (§  649) ;  Progress  in  the  Education  of  the  Masses  (§  650)  ;  Abolition  of 
Religious  Tests  in  the  Universities  (§  650) ;  Religious  Toleration  (§  650) ;  Transportation 
and  Communication,  Railways,  Telegraph  System ,  Cheap  Postage  (§651);  Introduction 
of  American  Petroleum  (§  652) ;  Photography  (§  652) ;  Ether,  Chloroform ;  the  New 
Surgery  (§  652) ;  Progress  of  the  Laboring  Classes  (§  653);  Free  Trade  (§653);  The  Small 
Agricultural  Holdings  Act  (§  654) ;  The  Agricultural  Outlook  (§654);  The  Colonial  Expan¬ 
sion  of  England  (§§655-656);  England’s  Change  of  Feeling  toward  her  Colonies  (§  656) ; 
Ireland;  the  Policy  of  Justice ;  Gladstone’s  Home  Rule  Bill;  Balfour’s  Local  Government 
Act,  1898  (§  656) ;  Arbitration  vs.  War  (§  656)  ;  Death  of  Gladstone  (§  657) ;  The  Cabot 
Tower  (§657);  Centennial  of  the  First  Savings  Bank  (§  657);  England  in  Egypt :  Gordon; 
Battle  of  Omdurman  (§  658) ;  Progress  in  Africa  (§658);  The  Boer  Republics  (§  659) ;  The 
Great  Boer  War  (§  659);  Death  of  Queen  Victoria,  1901  (§  659);  Accession  of  King 
Edward  VII,  1901  (§  659) ;  Condition  of  the  Mass  of  the  English  People  To-day  (§  660). 

See  Bright’s  England,  IV,  ch.  2,  8,  10-12;  Traill’s  Social  England,  VI,  ch.  22-24; 
Gardiner's  Student's  England,  ch.  57-60;  Browning’s  Modem  England,  Bk.  1Y-VIII; 
May’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  II,  ch.  18;  Taswell-Langmead’s  Constitutional 
History  of  England,  ch.  17;  Macarthy’s  History  of  our  Own  Times,  1837-1897;  Ward’s 
Reign  of  Queen  Victoria;  Bolton’s  Famous  English  Statesmen  of  Queen  Victoria’s  Reign; 
The  English  Illustrated  Magazine  for  July,  1897  ;  Dictionary  of  National  (British)  Biog¬ 
raphy,  supplementary  volume  (Victoria). 


General  Summary  of  the  Rise  of  the  English  People,  from  the  Earliest 
Period  to  the  Present  Time  (§661) 

Characteristics  of  English  History  ;  the  Unity  of  the  English-Speaking  Race ;  Conclusion 

(§  662). 

See,  in  general,  Traill’s  Social  England,  6  vols. ;  Knight’s  Pictorial  England,  9  vols. ; 
Taswell-Langmead’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  1  vol. 

General  Summary  of  English  Constitutional  History,  Appendix  (§§  1—33) 

See,  in  general.  Stubbs’s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  449-1485,  3  vols. ;  Hallam's 
Constitutional  History  of  England,  1485-1760,  1  vol.  (American  ed.);  May’s  Constitu¬ 
tional  History  of  England,  1760-1870,  2  vols.  ;  Taswell-Langmead's  Constitutional  History 
of  England,  449-1895,  1  vol. ;  Feilden’s  Manual  of  Constitutional  History,  1  small  vol. 
(Gityi  &  Company,  Boston). 


INDEX 


“  Abhorrers,”  political  party  (note),  271. 
Acadians  exiled,  326. 

Act  of  Attainder  (1689),  290. 

Acts  of  Parliament,  see  Laws. 

Addison’s  “  Spectator”  (1711),  304. 

Africa,  English  colonies  in,  406. 

English  explorations  in,  403. 

English  improvements  in,  407. 

English  wars  in,  see  Wars. 

English,  see  Egypt,  Transvaal. 
Agincourt,  see  Battles. 

Agricola,  forts  of,  22. 

Agricultural  labor,  effects  of  Black  Death 
on  (1349),  132. 

laborers  gain  suffrage  (1884),  385. 
laborers,  see  Villeins. 

Agriculture,  132,  178,  310,  400,  401. 
depressed  prospects  of,  401. 
protected  vs.  free  trade,  400. 
see  Com  Laws,  Labor,  Laborers,  Land, 
Suffrage. 

Alabama ,  England  and  the  (1862),  383. 

claims  settled  (1872),  383. 

Albert,  Prince,  373,  379,  381,  (note)  382,  383. 
Albion,  37. 

Alfred  the  Great  (871-901),  38-41. 

anniversary  of  his  birth  celebrated,  41. 
his  navy,  40. 

laws  and  translations  of,  40. 
victory  over  the  Danes,  39. 

White  Horse  Hill  (871?),  39. 

Treaty  of  Wedmore  (878),  39-40. 
America,  the  Cabots  discover  the  continent 
of  (1497),  186. 

emigration  of  Pilgrims  and  Puritans  to 
(1620-1630),  234-236. 
emigration  of  Royalists  to  (1649-1659), 
255- 

England  and  France  fight  for  (18th  cen¬ 
tury),  325-327* 

England  claims  (1497),  186. 

England  colonizes  (1584-1730),  218,  234. 
England  draws  food  supplies  from,  401. 
Revolution  in,  see  Wars, 
debt  of,  to  England,  418. 
history  of,  has  its  root  in  England,  418. 
largely  peopled  by  British  stock,  418. 
unity  of  English  and  American  interests, 
417-420. 


America,  see  United  States. 

Amusements,  85,  148,  226. 

Anderida  (Pevensey),  31. 

Angevin  or  Plantagenet  kings  (1154-1399), 

86. 

origin  of  the  name,  86. 

Angles  or  English  settle  in  Britain,  32. 

give  name  of  England,  37. 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  the,  53. 
Anglo-Saxon  tribes  on  the  continent,  12,  13. 
invade  Britain,  12,  13,  32. 
what  they  did  for  England,  45-46. 
race,  power  of  to-day,  419. 

Anne,  reign  of  (1702-1714),  294-305. 

Dr.  Sacheverell,  301. 
first  daily  paper  (1703),  304. 

Jennings  vs.  Masham,  300. 

Literature  ;  the  “  Spectator,”  304. 
Marlborough's  campaigns  (Blenheim), 
299. 

the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  302. 

Union  of  England  and  Scotland,  303. 
War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  296. 
Whig  and  Tory,  High  Church  and  Low, 
295- 

Anne  of  Cleves,  Queen  of  Henry  VIII, 
199. 

Anselm,  quarrel  with  William  II,  70. 

recalled  to  England,  72. 

Anti-Cora  Law  League  (Victoria),  376. 

Arabi  Pasha,  rebellion  of  (1881),  406. 
Arbitration,  Alabama  case  (1872),  383. 
Behring  Sea  case  (1893),  404. 

Geneva  Commission  (1872),  383. 

Hague  Peace  Conference  (1899),  404. 
Venezuela  case  (1896),  404. 

Arch,  Joseph,  385. 

Archers  and  archery,  145,  176. 

Architecture,  prehistoric,  Stonehenge,  10. 
Roman,  24,  25,  27. 

Saxon,  54. 

Norman,  83. 

Gothic,  “Early  English,”  110,  147. 
Gothic,  “  Decorated,”  147,  177. 

Gothic,  “  Peipendicular,”  227. 

Italian,  227,  309. 

Wren’s  work  (St.  Paul’s),  268. 
see  Manor-Houses,  Castles,  Cathedrals 
Armada,  defeat  of  the  Spanish,  see  Battles. 


lviii 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Arms  and  armor,  52,  78,  81,  145,  148,  157, 
176,  184,  225,  308. 

Army,  in  general,  14,  48,  50,  52,  79,  81,  88, 
*27,  130,  157,  246,  247,  279,  286,  395, 
410. 

and  commission  reform,  395. 
and  Mutiny  Act  (1689),  286. 

Cromwell's  “  Ironsides,”  247. 
Cromwell’s  “  New  Model,”  247. 
feudal,  50,  52,  79,  88. 
in  South  Africa,  410. 
large  standing,  not  required,  14,  246. 
parliamentary,  246,  247,  255,  256,  257. 
standing,  of  Charles  II,  262. 
standing,  of  James  II,  279. 
the  Saxon  or  English,  48,  50,  52,  79, 
81,  88. 

see  Artillery,  Gunpowder,  Militia  and 
Military  Affairs,  Battles,  and  Wars. 
Arrest,  Charles  I’s  attempted,  of  five  mem¬ 
bers,  245. 

Art,  4,  25,  53,  82,  257,  309,  3^2,  391,  399. 

destruction  of  works  of,  257. 

Arthur,  King,  32. 

Prince,  murdered,  102. 

Articles  of  Religion  (1552),  203. 

(1563),  212. 

Artillery,  145,  184. 

Assiento,  or  Slave  Contract  (note),  303. 
Assize  of  Arms  (note),  88. 

of  Clarendon  (note),  94. 

Assizes,  the  “  Bloody”  (1685),  277. 

Atlantic  cable  laid  (185S,  1866),  379. 
Attainder,  Thos.  Cromwell’s  use  of,  195. 

Act  of  (1689),  290. 

Augustine,  landing  of,  in  England  (597),  33. 
Australia,  England  gets  possession  of,  327. 
growth  of,  402. 

Austrian  Succession,  War  of,  see  Wars. 
Authors,  noted,  31,  35,  40,  53,  82,  133,  137, 
138,  146,  168,  177,  216,  217,  226,  266, 
2S9,  304,  308,  338,  351,  391. 
see  Literature. 

Bacon,  Sir  Francis,  218,  231,  237. 
his  new  philosophy,  218. 
impeached  (1621),  237. 

Roger  (13th  century),  no. 

Baliol,  John,  116. 

Ball,  John,  135. 

Ballot  demanded  by  the  Chartists  (1848),  374. 
secret  (1872),  396. 

Bank  of  England  established  (1694),  294. 

suspended  payment  (1697,  1811),  344. 
Banks,  savings,  established  (1799),  405. 
Bannockburn,  see  Battles. 

“  Barebone’s  Parliament,”  see  Parliament. 


Baronets,  created  by  James  I,  237. 

Barons,  vs.  the  King,  69,  94,  105,  107. 
Norman,  61,  62,  65,  76,  78,  369. 
Beaconsfield  on  Norman,  370. 
extort  Magna  Carta  (1215),  105,  106. 
extort  Provisions  of  Oxford  (1258),  in. 
King  John’s  struggle  with  the,  105,  107. 
new  class  of,  created  by  Henry-  III,  143, 
3  70- 

power  of,  crippled  by  Wars  of  the  Roses, 
i74,  370. 

see  Nobility,  Peerage,  Peers. 

Battle  Abbey,  5S. 

the  roll  of  (note),  369. 

Trial  by,  77,  95. 

Battles:  Agincourt  [Ahtehan'koor*]  (1415), 
156. 

Anderida  (490),  31. 

Arcot  (1751),  324- 

Armada  [Ar-ma^da]  (1588),  220-222. 
Ashdown  Ridge  (871),  39. 

Badbury  or  Mt.  Badon  (520),  32. 
Bannockburn  (1314),  122. 

Barnet  (1471),  167. 

Blenheim  (1704),  300. 

Bloreheath  (1459),  165. 

Bosworth  Field  (1485),  173. 

Bouvines  [Boo'veenf]  (1214),  105. 

Boyne  (1690),  291. 

Braddock’s  defeat  (1756),  326. 

Bunker  Hill  (1775),  335. 

Burgoyne’s  defeat  (1777),  336. 

Csesar’s  (55  b.c.),  18. 

Calais  [Kal'ayf]  (1347),  129. 

Calcutta  (1756),  324. 

Chalgrove  Field  (1643),  24S. 

Chateau  Gaillard  [Shah 'toe  f  Gay'yarc'] 
(1204),  103. 

Chester  [Rowton  Heath]  (1645),  248. 

Concord  (1775X  335- 

Cr&ry  [  Kray-see  f]  (1346),  127. 

Culloden  (1746),  323. 

Dettingen  [Detfin-gen]  (1743),  322. 
Drogheda  (1649)  (note),  252. 

Dunbar  (1296),  116. 

Dunbar  (1650),  253. 

Dutch  naval  defeat  (1653),  258. 

Edgehill  (1642),  246. 

Edington  (878),  39. 

Evesham  (1265),  114. 

Flodden  (1513),  190. 

Gibraltar  (1704),  300. 

Hastings  or  Senlac  (1066),  58. 

La  Hogue  (1692),  293. 

Lewes  [Lew tees]  (1264),  112. 

Lexington  (1775)*  335- 
Majuba  Hill  (1881),  408. 


INDEX 


lix 


Battles:  Malplaquet  [Mal'pla-kaM  (1709), 
300. 

Marston  Moor  (1644),  248. 

Mt.  Badon  or  Badbury  (520),  32. 

Naseby  (1645),  248. 

naval,  with  the  Dutch  (1653),  258. 

naval,  with  France  (1798),  34°  • 

naval,  with  France  (1805),  341. 

naval,  with  Spain  (1588),  220. 

naval,  with  the  U.  S.,  War  of  1812,  342. 

New  Orleans  (1815),  342. 

Nile  (1798),  340. 

Northampton  (1460),  165. 

Omdurman  (1898),  406. 

Orleans  [Orfia-on]  (1429)*  i58- 
Oudenarde  (1708),  300. 

Pinkie  (1547)?  2°3* 

Plassey  (1757).  32_5- 
Poitiers  [Pwa-te-af]  (i356)>  I3°* 
Prestonpans  (1745)*  323- 
•Quebec  (1759)?  326- 

Ramillies  [Ram'ee-leez  or  Ra-me’ye*] 
(1700),  300. 

Roman  (55  b.c.-a.d.  152),  18,  19,  21. 
Rowton  Heath  or  Chester  (1645),  248. 

St.  Albans  (1455),  164* 

Saratoga,  Burgoyne’s  defeat  (i777)»  336. 
Sebastopol  (1855),  3S0. 

Sedgemoor  (1685),  276. 

Senlac  or  Hastings  (1066),  58. 
Sheriffmuir  (1715),  3l6- 
Shrewsbury  (1403)?  x53- 
Stamford  Bridge  (1066),  57. 

Standard,  the  (1138),  74. 

Tewkesbury  (1471),  i67- 
Tinchebrai  (1106),  72. 

Towton  (1461),  165. 

Trafalgar  [Traf-aPgar]  (1805),  341. 

Van  Tromp’s  defeat  (1653),  258. 
Wakefield  (1460),  165. 

Waterloo  (1815),  342. 

Wexford  (1650)  (note),  252. 

White  Horse  Hill  (871),  39. 

Worcester  (1651),  253. 

Yorktown  (1781),  336. 
see,  too,  Blake,  Cromwell,  Drake,  Kitch¬ 
ener,  Marlborough,  Monk,  Nelson, 
Roberts,  Russell,  Wellington,  Wars. 
Bayeux  Tapestry  (Bay'yuld),  59>  82. 
Beaconsfield  (Bektons-field),  384,  404,  405, 
406,  410. 

Becket,  Thomas,  88. 

Henry  II’s  quarrel  with,  89-93. 
murdered,  92. 
tomb  violated,  197. 

Behring  Sea  case,  404. 

Benevolences,  Edward  IV  extorts,  169,  176. 


Benevolences, abolished  by  Richard  III,  17 1. 

revived  by  Henry  VII,  182. 

Bible,  Wycliffe  translates  (1378),  138. 

New  Testament,  the  Greek  (Henry 
VIII),  189. 

Henry  VIII,  action  concerning,  200. 
devices  for  reading  the  (Mary),  207. 
Bigod,  Earl  vs.  Henry  III,  m,  112. 

Bill,  the  Exclusion  (1679),  271. 
of  Rights  (1689),  287. 

“  Root  and  Branch”  (1641),  244. 

Irish  Home  Rule  (1893),  404. 
see  Laws. 

Bishops,  appointment  of  (Henry  I),  72. 

the  Seven  (1688),  281. 

“  Black  Death,”  the  (1349)*  !32* 
effects  of,  on  labor,  132. 

“  Black  Hole  ”  of  Calcutta  (1756),  324. 

“  Black  Prince,”  the,  128,  13 1. 

Blake,  Admiral,  222,  258. 

“  Bloody  Assizes,”  the  (1685),  277. 
“Blue-Coat  Schools”  founded  by  Edward 
VI,  204. 

Boadicea  [Bo-ad'i-cefa]  (61),  20. 

Boers  [Boors],  the,  in  South  Africa,  407. 

England’s  war  with  the,  see  Wars. 
Boleyn  (Bui fin)  Anne,  191,  194,  198. 

Bonner,  Bishop,  207. 

Book,  first  printed  in  England  (1477),  168, 
176. 

Books,  noted,  see  Authors. 

“  Boroughs,  Rotten”  (1832),  359,  361. 

abolished  (1832),  363. 

Boscobel  Oak,  253. 

Bowmen,  English,  127,  128,  130,  157. 
Boycotting  in  Ireland  (1880),  388. 

Braddock’s  defeat,  see  Battles. 

Bradshaw,  John,  250,  251,  264. 

Breadstuffs,  England  depends  on  America 
for,  401. 

Breda,  Declaration  of  (1660)  (note),  261. 
Bretigny,  Peace  of,  see  Treaties. 

Bright,  John,  376. 

Britain,  prehistoric,  1-10. 

Christianity  introduced  into,  21. 
conquered  by  the  Saxons,  31. 
geography  of,  11. 

Roman,  17-28. 

takes  the  name  of  England,  37. 

Britons,  the  primitive,  1-10. 
bravery  of  the,  18,  32,  33. 
conquered  by  the  Romans,  25-29. 
conquered  by  the  Saxons,  32,  33. 
illustrious  Americans  descended  from 
the,  33. 

religion  of  the,  9. 
what  we  owe  to  the,  10. 


lx 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Bruce,  Robert,  116,  121,  123. 

“  Bubble,  South  Sea,”  the  (1720),  317. 
Buckingham,  Duke  of,  240,  241. 

Burgoyne’s  defeat,  see  Battles. 

Burke,  Edmund,  333,  335,  344,  351. 

Burleigh,  Lord  (Cecil),  210. 

Cabal,  the  (1667-1673),  262. 

Cabinet  Government  begins  (1721),  315. 
Government,  modern  (note),  315. 
members  of  the  (note),  316. 
sovereign’s  power  over  the,  368,  416. 
Cable,  the  Atlantic,  laid  (1858,  1866),  379. 
Cabots,  the,  discover  the  continent  of  Amer¬ 
ica  (1497),  186. 
monument  to  the,  405. 

Cade,  Jack,  rebellion  of  (1450),  161. 

Caesar,  Julius,  invades  Britain  (55,  54  b.c.),i8. 
Calais  (Kal'ayO  taken  (1347),  129. 
restored  (1360),  130. 
lost  by  Mary  (1558),  208. 

Cambridge,  177,  189. 

Canal  system  begun  (1761),  347. 

Cannon  first  used  (1346),  128. 

effect  of,  129,  184. 

Canterbury,  21,  34,  92,  13 1. 

Canute,  King  of  England  (1017-1035),  43. 

his  four  earldoms,  43. 

Caractacus  taken  prisoner,  19. 

Caroline,  Queen,  refused  coronation  (1821), 
356. 

Castles,  Norman,  74,  83,  87. 

Edward  I’s,  in  Wales,  115,  147. 
give  way  to  manor-houses,  218,  227. 
Catharine  of  Aragon  marries  Prince  Arthur, 
1B5. 

burial  place  of,  197. 

divorced  by  Henry  VIII,  192-194. 

marries  Henry  VIII,  191. 

Cathedral,  St.  Paul’s,  227,  268. 

Cathedrals,  Norman,  83. 

Gothic,  147,  177,  227. 
modern,  227,  268,  309. 

Catholic  Church,  see  Church. 

Catholics  meet  at  tomb  of  Edward  the  Con¬ 
fessor,  44. 

accused  of  burning  London  (1666),  268. 
and  Oliver  Cromwell,  252. 
and  Protestants  in  Ireland,  345,  346. 
and  the  “  Gunpowder  Plot  ”  (1605),  233. 
and  the  “  Popish  Plot”  (1678),  270. 
Charles  1 1  favors  the,  269-270. 

James  II  favors  the,  275,  279-281. 
debarred  from  the  Crown  (1701),  288. 
Disabling  Act  against  (1678),  271. 
disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Protestant 
Church,  386. 


Catholics,  emancipation  of,  accomplished 
(1829),  357. 

England  divided  respecting  the,  200, 
206,  209,  210,  213. 

excluded  from  the  House  of  Commons 
(>559).  212- 

excluded  from  both  Houses  of  Parlia¬ 
ment  (1678-1829),  271. 

Exclusion  Bill  and  Duke  of  York  (1679), 
271. 

fight,  the  Spanish  Armada  (1588),  221. 
in  Ireland,  rebellion  (1798),  345. 

Lord  Gordon  Riots  against  (1780),  337. 
oppressed,  287,  345. 

Pitt  labors  for  the  emancipation  of  the, 
346. 

readmitted  to  the  House  of  Commons 
0829),  357. 

severe  acts  against  (*691),  292. 
sufferings  of  the  Irish,  292. 

Cavaliers  in  the  Civil  War  (17th  century), 
246. 

(note),  271. 

Cavendish,  Lord,  murdered  (1882),  389. 
Caxton  prints  first  book  in  England  (1477), 
167,  168,  176,  180. 

Cecil,  Lord  Burleigh,  210. 

Celtic  names  in  England,  12. 

Celts  in  Britain,  7. 

Cerdic,  a  Saxon  chief,  32. 

Chancery  Court,  see  Courts. 

Channel,  the  influence  of,  on  history,  14, 
34i. 

Charles  I,  reign  of  (1625-1649),  239-250. 
believes  in  the  “  Divine  Right  of  Kings,” 
239- 

the  Petition  of  Right,  240. 
attempts  to  arrest  members  of  Parlia¬ 
ment,  245. 

Civil  War  (1642-1649),  245. 

difficulty  with  the  Scottish  Church,  243. 

Grand  Remonstrance,  244. 

Long  Parliament  (1640-1660),  244. 
policy  of  “Thorough,”  241. 
rules  without  Parliament,  241. 
ship  money,  John  Hampden,  242. 
execution  of  (1649),  250. 

Charles  II,  proclaimed  in  Ireland  (1649), 252. 
reign  of  (1660-1685),  261-275. 
plague  and  fire  of  London,  267. 
political  reforms  in  reign  of,  273. 

“  Popish  Plot,”  270. 
proclaimed  in  Scotland  (1649),  252- 
religious  persecution  by,  264. 
restored  to  the  Crown  (1660),  261. 
Rye-House  Plot,  272. 
secret  Treaty  of  Dover  (1670),  269. 


INDEX 


lxi 


Charles  II,  the  “  Cabal,”  263. 
died  a  Catholic,  274. 

Charter,  William  I’s,  to  London,  59. 

Henry  I’s  (noo),  71,  105. 

Henry  I  I’s  (1154),  87. 

Stephen's  (1135?).  74- 

Charter,  the  Great,  or  Magna  Carta,  de¬ 
manded  (T214),  105. 
granted  (1215),  106. 
abstract  of,  in  Appendix,  ix,  xxix. 
alterations  in  the,  109. 
confirmed  (1297),  117. 
confirmed  many  times,  107. 
renewal  of  (1253),  112. 
reissued  by  Henry  IV,  109,  112. 
terms  and  value  of  the,  106. 
violated  by  Henry  III,  no. 
curse  pronounced  on  the  breakers  of 
(1253),  112. 

Charters,  town,  sold  by  Richard  I,  98,  102. 
town  revoked  by  Charles  II,  272,  284. 

Chartists,  demands  of  the  (1838-1848),  374. 
great  demonstration  planned  by  (1848), 

375- 

many  demands  of,  eventually  conceded, 

376- 

Chateau  Gaillard  (Shah'toel  Gay’yare')  taken, 
103. 

Chatham  (Pitt)  and  the  American  Revolu¬ 
tion,  332. 

Chaucer’s  “Canterbury  Tales,”  133,  137. 

Chester,  12,  27,  248. 

Children  in  mines  and  factories,  364,  365. 
chimney  sweeping  by,  forbidden,  365. 
cruelty  to,  364,  365- 
legislation  in  behalf  of  (1833),  365. 
see  Laws. 

Chimney  sweeping  by  children  forbidden, 
365- 

China,  war  with,  see  Wars. 

Chivalry  (see,  too,  Knighthood),  129,  145. 

Christianity  first  introduced  into  Britain,  21. 
conversion  of  Kent,  34. 
conversion  of  the  North,  34. 
council  of  Whitby  (664),  36. 
general  influence  of,  35,  36,  51. 
good  work  done  by  the  monks,  35. 
influence  of,  for  peace,  75. 
introduced  into  England  (597),  33- 
political  influence  of  (664),  36. 
see  Church,  Religion. 

Church,  the  first  in  England,  21. 
clergy,  benefit  of,  80,  90. 
clergy,  regular  and  secular,  41. 
Constitutions  of  Clarendon  (1164),  90. 
courts,  see  Courts. 

Dunstan’s  reforms  in  the,  41. 


Church,  reform,  Gregory’s  scheme  of,  63. 
Henry  I  and  the,  72. 

John’s  quarrel  with  the  (1208),  104. 
laws  respecting  appeal  to  the  Pope  (1351, 
1353).  I3L  ’44- 

laws  respecting  holding  lands,  143. 
laws  respecting  papal  legates,  193. 
Lollards  and  the,  139. 

Mendicant  Friars,  work  of  (1221),  no, 

138,  144- 

monasteries  destroyed  by  Henry  VIII, 

I96. 

monks  and  monasteries  of,  35. 
political  influence  for  good  (664),  36. 
reforms  attempted  in  the,  41,  42,  63,  72. 
the,  attacked  by  the  Danes  (871),  38. 
vs.  heretics,  139,  153,  155,  200,  207,  208, 
212,  308. 

William  I,  vs.  the  Pope,  64. 

William  Rufus  and  the,  70. 

Wycliffe  and  the,  138. 
see  Architecture,  Cathedrals. 

Church,  the  Catholic,  in  England,  see  Church 
above. 

and  Henry  VIII,  194. 
separated  from  the  Pope  (1534).  *94- 
vs.  the  Protestant,  204. 
see  Christianity,  Excommunication, 
Laws,  Pope,  Protestantism,  Refor¬ 
mation,  Religion. 

Church,  the  Protestant,  of  England  estab¬ 
lished  by  Edward  VI  (1549),  202. 
and  Dissenters,  see  Dissenters, 
and  heresy,  see  Heresy, 
and  the  Puritans,  see  Puritans, 
and  Toleration,  see  Laws. 

Articles  of  Religion,  203,  212. 
compulsory  rates  abolished  (1868),  386. 
Elizabeth  and  the,  211-213. 

High,  vs.  Low  (Anne),  295. 
the  Irish  branch  of,  disestablished  (1869), 
386. 

the  Scottish,  and  Charles  I  (1637),  243. 
Churches  mutilated  by  Henry  VIII  and 
Edward  VI,  196,  197,  203. 
mutilated  by  Puritans,  257. 

Cities,  sanitary  conditions  of,  in  Middle 
Ages,  148. 

condition  of,  to-day,  41 1. 
lighted  with  gas  (1815),  349- 
London  purified  by  fire  (1666),  268. 
many  not  represented  in  Parliament 
(1830),  359. 
rapid  growth  of,  348. 
streets  of  London  (1603-1714),  311. 

Civil  Service  Reform  (1870),  395. 

Civil  War,  see  Wars. 


lxii 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Civil  War  in  United  States,  381. 

Clarendon,  Constitutions  of  (1164),  90,  142. 
Claverhouse,  265,  292. 

Clergy,  benefit  of,  80,  90. 

and  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  (1164), 
90,  142. 

regular  and  secular,  41. 

Clive’s  campaigns  in  India  (1751— 1757),  324. 
Coal  mines,  women  and  children  in,  364. 
Cobbett,  William,  361. 

Cobden,  Richard,  376. 

Cobham,  Lord,  155. 

Coffee-houses  opened  in  London  (17th  cen¬ 
tury),  31 1. 

Coinage,  87,  228. 

Colleges,  see  Education. 

Colonies  planted  in  America,  218. 
emigration  to  the,  235,  236,  255. 
first  permanent,  in  America  (1607),  234. 
how  England  regarded  her,  331. 
imperial  federation  of,  404. 
impose  duties  on  English  goods,  401. 
in  Ireland  (1611),  236. 

American  Revolution,  335. 
independence  of,  acknowledged  (1782), 
337- 

liberty  enjoyed  by  American,  331. 
Navigation  Laws,  and  the,  257. 
restriction  of  trade,  and  manufactures  in, 
331-332. 

taxes  imposed  on,  330,  332,  333. 
see  Africa,  America,  Australia,  India, 
Ireland,  New  Zealand. 

Commerce,  early  tin  trade  of  Britain,  8. 
favorable  situation  of  England  for,  15. 
rise  of  English  (1399),  125. 
wool  trade  (Edward  III),  148. 
in  general,  8,  15,  54,  84,  125,  148,  178, 
227,  310,  410. 

England’s  loss  of  supremacy  in,  410. 
see  Trade, Manufacture, Industry, Labor. 
Common  Law,  51. 

Common  Prayer,  Book  of  (1549),  203. 
Commons,  House  of,  rise  of  the  (1265),  113, 
143- 

gains  control  of  money  power,  152,  289, 
372. 

gains  control  of  taxation,  152,  372. 
gains  share  in  legislation  (1322),  122. 
power  of  impeachment  (14th  century), 
131. 

the  Model  Parliament  (1295),  115. 
is  now  supreme,  307,  368,  372. 
see  Parliament. 

Commonwealth  or  Republic  of  England 
,  (1649),  251. 

Communists,  135,  139,  252. 


Communists,  see  Ball,  Cade,  Tyler,  Lollards. 
Compurgation,  50. 

Conservative  and  Liberal  parties  (1833),  364. 
Constitution,  growth  of  the,  287. 

of  Cromwell's  Protectorate  (1653),  255. 
of  Cromwell’s  Protectorate  (1657),  255. 
see  Act  of  Settlement,  Bill  of  Rights, 
Habeas  Corpus  Act,  Humble  Peti¬ 
tion  and  Advice,  Instrument  of  Gov¬ 
ernment,  Magna  Carta,  Petition  of 
Right;  see,  too,  Government. 
Constitutional  Documents,  see  Appendix, 
xxix. 

Government,  England’s  development  of, 
107,  418. 

history,  general  summary  of,  Appendix, 
i-xxviii. 

Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  see  Laws. 
Conventicle  Act,  see  Laws. 

Cook,  Captain,  explorer,  327. 

Cooperative  Societies  and  Stores,  400. 

Corn  Laws,  see  Laws. 

Cornish,  execution  of  Alderman  (James  II), 
279. 

Coronation  chair,  117. 

oath,  Elizabeth’s,  21 1. 

Corporation  Act,  see  Law's. 

Cotton  manufacturing  machinery,  348. 
Council,  the  King’s,  76. 

Council,  the  National,  45,  47,  48,  76,  109. 
the  Privy  or  Private,  76. 
of  State  (1649),  251. 

see  Cabinet,  Parliament,  Witenagemot. 
Councils,  County,  Act,  see  Laws. 

Parish,  Act,  see  Law's. 

Counties,  the  Palatine,  62. 

“  Country  Party,”  the  (Charles  II),  271. 
County  Councils  Act,  see  Law's. 

Court,  ecclesiastical,  established  by  WiL 
liam  I,  63. 

abuses  of,  80,  90,  144. 

High  Commission,  212,  242,  280. 

Court,  High  Commission,  established  (1583), 
212. 

Laud’s  use  of,  242. 

abolished  by  the  Long  Parliament,  244. 
revived  by  James  II,  280. 
finally  abolished  by  the  Bill  of  Rights 
(1689),  Appendix,  xxxi. 

Court  of  Justice  (449-1066),  50. 

Chancery,  76  ;  (note),  77. 

Common  Pleas  (note),  77,  142. 
divided  into  Chancery,  Common  Pleas, 
Exchequer,  and  King's  Bench  (note), 
77- 

improved  by  Henry  I,  73. 

the  Curia  Regis,  or  High  Court,  77 


INDEX 


lxiii 


Court,  Star-Chamber,  established  (Henry 
VII),  183. 

abolished  (Long  Parliament,  1640),  244. 
abuses  of  the,  reformed,  284. 
abuses  of  the  Stuart,  277,  280,  284. 
Laud’s  use  of,  242. 

reforms  in  Chancery  (1873,  1877),  396. 
reforms  in  criminal,  397. 
see  “Bloody  Assizes,”  Compurgation, 
Jeffreys,  Jury,  Justice,  Ordeal, 
Scroggs,  Trial  by  Battle. 

Courts,  private  baronial,  95. 

Covenant,  the  original  Scottish  (1557)  (note), 
243- 

Charles  II  subscribes  to  the  (1650),  253. 
publicly  burned  (1661),  264. 

Solemn  League  and,  accepted  by  Parlia¬ 
ment  (1647),  248. 

the  second  Scottish  (1638)  (note),  243. 
the  Solemn  League  and  (1647),  248. 
Covenanters,  persecution  of  the  Scottish 
(Charles  II),  265. 

Cranmer,  Bishop,  194,  203,  207. 
burned,  207. 

Crecy,  battle  of,  see  Battles. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  and  John  Hampden,  243. 
campaign  in  Ireland,  252. 

Protector  (1653-1658),  254-258. 

character  as  a  ruler,  256. 

expels  Parliament,  254. 

in  the  Civil  War  (17th  century),  246. 

is  offered  the  crown,  255. 

made  general-in-chief,  251. 

made  Protector  (1653-1658),  254. 

organizes  the  New  Model  Army,  247. 

visits  corpse  of  Charles  I,  250. 

his  corpse  hanged  (1660),  264. 

Cromwell,  Richard,  Protector  (1658-1659), 
259- 

Cromwell,  Thomas  (Henry  VIII),  195,  199. 
Crown,  succession  to  the,  47,  175,  198  (note), 
205,  288. 

claim  of  divine  right  of  the,  232,  239, 
306. 

good  effects  of  power  of,  181-182. 
has  lost  pow  er  of  veto,  369. 
has  no  direct  political  power  now,  288, 
368-369. 

how  limited  by  the  Revolution  of  1688, 
288. 

how  limited  to-day  (note),  373. 
power  of,  under  Charles  I,  239,  240,  241, 
242. 

power  of,  under  Charles  II,  269,  270, 
272,  274. 

power  of,  under  George  I,  314,  315,  316. 
power  of,  under  George  II,  321. 


Crowrn,  power  of,  under  George  III,  330. 
Dunning’s  famous  resolution  respecting 
the  (1780),  330. 

power  of,  under  James  I,  232,  233,  237. 
power  of,  under  James  II,  275,  279,  280, 
281. 

power  of,  under  the  Tudors,  181,  184, 
195,  224. 

power  of,  under  Williajn  IV,  368. 

Queen  Anne  controlled  by  favorites, 
300. 

stability  of  the,  367. 
strengthened  by  destruction  of  the 
baronage,  174. 

strengthened  by  firearms,  184. 
strengthened  by  scutage,  88,  144. 
see  Government,  King,  Parliament, 
House  of  Commons,  Constitution. 
Crusades,  Richard  I  goes  to  the  (1190),  98. 
purpose  of  the,  100. 
results  of  the,  101. 

Edward  I  goes  to,  114. 

Curfew,  84. 

Curia  Regis,  or  King’s  Court,  see  Courts. 
Curse  of  the  Charter  Breakers  (1253),  112. 

Danegeld,  or  tax  levied  (992),  42. 

Danes  or  Northmen  invade  England  (871), 
12,  38. 

Alfred’s  battles  with,  39. 

Alfred's  treaty  with  (878),  40. 
conquer  England  (1013),  43. 
destroy  monasteries,  38. 
levy  tax,  42. 

names  given  by,  in  England,  13. 
what  they  did  for  England,  45. 

Danish  Kings  of  England  (1013-1035),  43. 

see  Canute,  Sweyn. 

Darwin,  Charles,  390-391. 

Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  350. 

Debt,  National,  origin  of  (1693),  293. 
great  increase  of  (1688-1815),  344. 
punishment  of  debtors,  31 1,  339.  * 
Declaration  of  Breda  (1660)  (note),  261. 
of  Indulgence  (Charles  II),  270. 
of  Indulgence  (James  II),  279,  280,  281. 
of  Right  (1689),  285. 
of  Sunday  Sports  (1633),  242. 
of  Sunday  Sports  burned,  242. 

“  Defender  of  the  Faith  ”  (Henry  VIII),  190. 
Despensers,  the  (Edward  II),  123. 
Disfranchisement  of  voters  (1430),  160,  175. 
Dispensing  power  of  the  King  (note),  279,  • 
280,  281. 

Dissenters,  vs.  Nonconformists  (note),  264. 
harsh  law's  against  (1711,  1714),  302. 
harsh  law's  repealed,  313. 


Ixiv 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Dissenters,  see  Puritans,  Pilgrims,  Perse¬ 
cution,  Heretics,  Religion,  Laws, 
Church. 

“  Divine  Right  of  Kings,”  232,  239,  306. 
Dixwell,  John,  regicide,  264. 

Domesday  Book  compiled  (1086),  65. 

Dover,  secret  Treaty  of,  see  Treaties. 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  218,  221,  222,  227. 

Dress,  84,  148,  178,  228. 

change  to  modern  style  of,  352. 

Druids,  the,  9,  20. 

Dunkirk  ceded  to  the  English,  258. 
Dunning’s  famous  resolution  (1780),  330. 
Dunstan,  St.,  his  reforms,  41. 

Dutch  colony  in  America  seized  (1664),  266. 
the,  invade  England  (1667),  268. 
wars  with  the,  see  Wars. 

Earl  (see  Nobility),  48. 

Earldoms,  Canute's  four,  43. 

Earl  Godwin,  power  of,  44. 

East  India  Company,  218,  310,  324,  334, 
338. 

Education  (449-1066),  35,  40,  52,  53. 

(1 1 54-1399),  m6. 

(i399_i485),  177,  188. 

(1485-1603),  226. 

(1603-1714),  309- 
(1760-1820),  352. 

at  beginning  of  Victorian  era,  397. 

“  Board  Schools  ”  established  (1870),  386. 
Edward  VI  founds  schools,  203,  204. 
great  progress  of,  in  Victorian  era,  397. 
Henry  VIII  encourages,  188. 
monastic  schools,  35. 
national  system  established  (1870),  386. 
Roger  Bacon’s  work,  iio-m. 

Sir  Francis  Bacon’s  new  philosophy, 
218. 

the“  New  Learning  ’’(Henry  VIII),  188. 
universities  thrown  open  to  all  (1871), 

387- 

setfXaws. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  reign  of  (1042-1066), 
44- 

Laws  of,  59,  105. 

Edward  I,  reign  of  (1272-1307),  114-121. 
confirms  the  Charters,  117. 
conquers  Wales,  115. 
expels  the  Jews,  118. 
goes  to  the  Crusades,  114. 
important  laws  of,  respecting  land  and 
the  Church,  119,  120. 
summons  the  “Model  Parliament,”  1 15. 
war  with  Scotland  (Wallace),  117. 
EdWard  II,  reign  of  (1307-1327),  121-124. 
battle  of  Bannockburn,  122. 


Edward  II,  Ordinances  of  Reform,  122. 
Piers  Gaveston,  12 1. 
the  Despensers,  123. 
the  King  deposed  and  murdered,  123. 
Edward  III,  reign  of  (1327-1377),  1 24-134. 
battle  of  Crecy,  and  other  victories, 
128-130. 

beginning  of  English  Literature,  133. 
beginning  of  the  “  Hundred  Years’ 
War”  with  France,  125. 
effects  of  the  French  war  in  England, 
^31- 

Peace  of  Bretigny,  130. 
rise  of  English  commerce,  125. 
the  Black  Death  and  Labor,  132. 
the  “Good  Parliament,”  133. 
wool  manufacture,  125. 

Edward  IV,  reign  of  (1461-1483),  167-169. 
continuation  of  Wars  of  the  Roses,  167. 
the  introduction  of  printing,  167. 
the  King  collects  “  benevolences,”  169. 
Edward  V,  reign  of  (1483-1483),  169. 

murdered  in  the  Tower,  170. 

Edward  VI,  reign  of  (1547-1553),  201-205. 
battle  of  Pinkie,  203. 
confiscation  of  church  property,  203. 
founds  charity  schools,  204. 
Protestantism  established,  202. 
seizure  of  unenclosed  lands,  202. 
Edward  VII,  accession  of  (1901),  410. 
Egbert,  first  “  King  of  the  English  ”  (828), 
37- 

descent  of  English  sovereigns  from,  38. 
see,  too,  table  in  Appendix,  xl. 

Egypt,  England  in,  406. 

Eleanor,  Queen  of  Edward  I,  115,  118. 
Elections, disorderly  scenes  at,  364. 

see  Bribery  Act,  Reform  Acts  of  1832, 
1867,  1884,  Registration  Act,  Secret 
Ballot  Act;  see,  too,  Cities,  Disfran¬ 
chisement,  Laws,  “Rotten  Bor¬ 
oughs,”  and  Suffrage. 

Electors  disfranchised  (1430),  160,  175. 
Electricity,  age  of,  379. 

Eliot,  Sir  John,  240,  241. 

Elizabeth,  Princess,  declared  illegitimate, 
198. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  reign  of  (1558-1603),  209- 
224. 

Act  of  Supremacy  reenacted,  212. 
and  Henry  VIII’s  will,  198;  (note),  205. 
and  the  Spanish  Armada,  220. 
beheads  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  220. 
character  and  policy  of,  214-2x5. 
death  of,  223-224. 
first  Poor  Law  enacted,  223. 
her  crooked  ways  and  lying,  215. 


INDEX 


lxv 


Elizabeth,  Queen,  her  violent  temper,  215. 
imprisoned  in  the  Tower  by  Mary,  206. 
knew  when  to  yield,  216. 
literature  of  her  age,  216-218. 
monopolies,  216. 
question  of  her  marriage,  213. 
religious  legislation  of,  21 1-2 13. 
splendor  of  her  reign,  217-218. 
the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  of  religion,  212. 
Elliott’s  “Corn-Law  Rhymes,”  376. 

Emmet,  Robert,  346. 

Empson  and  Dudley,  183. 

England  conquered  by  the  Romans,  17. 

and  the  United  States,  unity  of  interests 
of,  417-420. 

Christianity  introduced  into,  21,  33. 
commercial  situation  of,  15. 
conquered  by  the  Normans,  58-60. 
conquered  by  the  Saxons,  30-31. 
Constitutional  Documents  of,  Appendix, 
xxix. 

Constitutional  History,  Summary  of, 
Appendix,  i-xxviii. 

geography  of,  in  relation  to  history,  11. 
great  progress  of,  under  Victoria,  391- 
4°5- 

has  taken  the  lead  in  the  development 
of  constitutional  government,  107, 
418. 

influence  of  steam  on  growth  of,  348. 
invaded  by  the  Danes,  12,  38,  40-45. 
name  adopted,  37. 
sketch  of  progress  of,  412-417. 
see,  in  general,  Constitution,  Govern¬ 
ment,  Laws,  Army,  Navy,  Trade, 
Commerce,  Literature,  Wars,  Trea¬ 
ties. 

English  or  Angles  invade  Britain  (547),  32. 
general  character  of,  45,  46. 
give  name  of  England,  32,  37. 
what  they  accomplished,  46. 

Englishry,  the  Law  of,  see  Laws. 

Entail  of  land,  119,  371. 

Law  of,  see  Laws. 

Episcopal  clergy  driven  out  (Common¬ 
wealth),  248. 

Church,  see  Church. 

Erasmus,  189. 

Essex  (Elizabeth),  215,  223. 

General  (Commonwealth),  246. 

Ether,  introduction  of,  into  surgery  (1846), 
399- 

Eton  College  founded,  177. 

Exchequer,  Charles  II  robs  the  (1672),  269. 

Court,  see  Courts. 

Excise  Tax,  see  Tax. 

Exclusion  Bill  fails  (1679),  271-272. 


Excommunication  of  Henry  II,  91. 
of  Henry  VIII,  195. 
of  John,  104. 

Factories,  effect  of  steam  on,  348. 

employment  of  women  and  children  in, 
364,  365. 

Factory  Act,  see  Laws. 

Reform  (1833),  364. 

“  Fair  Rosamond,”  93. 

Fairs  (1154-1399),  147. 

(17th  century),  147. 

Bunyan’s  “Vanity  Fair,”  147. 
the  “  World’s  ”  (1851),  379. 

Famine,  the  Irish  (1845),  377. 

“  Favorites,”  royal,  122,  123,  133,  134,  232, 
262,  300,  301. 

Fenian  Plots,  see  Plots. 

Feudal  System  (449-1066),  48-50,  66,  72. 
(1066-1154),  78;  Appendix,  iii-vi. 
advantages  of  the,  49. 
baronage  destroyed  by  Wars  of  the 
Roses,  174. 

dues  or  taxes  of  the,  79. 
effect  of  artillery  on  the,  129,  184. 
effect  of  scutage  on  the,  88. 
finally  abolished  (1660),  273. 

WTilliam  I  breaks  the  neck  of  the 
Appendix,  vi. 

“  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold  ”  (Henry  VIII), 
190. 

Fire,  the  great  London  (1666),  267. 

Firearms,  introduction  of  (1399-1485),  176. 
strengthen  the  royal  power  (Henry 
VII),  184. 

see  Gunpowder  and  Cannon. 

Fisher,  Bishop,  burned  (1535),  195. 
Five-Mile  Act,  see  Laws. 

Flag,  the  British,  303. 

Flanders,  wool  trade  with,  125. 

Florida  ceded  to  England  (1763),  327. 
Folkland  (449-1066),  48. 

Food  supply  of  England,  401. 

Forest  Laws,  severity  of  the,  64. 
see  Laws. 

Forest,  the  New,  64. 

Forster,  Mr.,  and  the  Education  Act  (1870), 
386. 

Fox  and  the  American  Revolution,  335. 
and  Ireland,  345. 
and  the  slave  trade,  340. 

France,  Henry  II’s  possession  in,  86. 
aids  James  II,  284,  290. 
alliance  of  Scotland  with,  116. 
and  Ireland,  345. 
and  the  “  Pretender,”  303,  323. 
and  William  IV,  297. 


Ixvi 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


France,  Edward  III  claims  crown  of  (1338), 
126. 

Edward  III  obtains  part  of,  130. 

Edward  III  renounces  claim  to,  130. 
effect  of  French  Revolution  on  Eng¬ 
land,  340. 

Louis  of,  invited  to  take  the  English 
crown  (1215),  107. 

makes  secret  treaty  with  Charles  II,  269. 
Napoleon  plans  invasion  of  England, 
340- 

struggle  of,  with  England  for  America, 

325. 

wars  with,  see  Wars. 

Free  towns,  rise  of,  99. 

Free  trade  established  (1849),  378. 
colonies  do  not  permit,  378. 
see  Navigation  Act  and  American 
Colonies,  and  Ireland. 

Friars,  Mendicant,  in  England  (1221),  no. 

work  of,  no,  138,  144. 

Friction  matches  perfected  (1834),  366. 

Fry,  Elizabeth,  339. 

Gardiner,  Bishop,  207. 

Gas  introduced  (1815),  349. 

Gaunt,  Elizabeth,  burned  (James  II), 279. 
Gaveston,  Piers,  12 1. 

Genealogical  tables,  Edward  III  and 
French  crown,  126. 

claims  of  Lady  Jane  Grey  to  crown,  205. 
claims  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  to 
crown,  205. 

descent  of  English  sovereigns,  from 
Egbert  (828)  to  Edward  VII  (1901), 
Appendix,  xl. 

Edward  III  and  Mortimer,  141. 

Edward  III,  descendants  of,  163. 

Henry  VII,  line  of,  172,  180,  205. 

House  of  Hanover(George  l,et se^.),^i^. 
Geneva  arbitration  (1872),  383. 

Geography  of  England,  and  history,  11. 

of  world  as  known  in  1485,  185. 

George  I,  reign  of  (1714-1727),  312-321. 
cabinet  government  begins,  314. 
inoculation,  319. 
the  “  Pretender,’’  316. 
the  “  South  Sea  Bubble,”  317. 

Walpole  first  Prime  Minister,  315. 
George  II,  reign  of  (1727-1760),  321-329. 
Clive’s  victories  in  India,  324. 
intemperance,  increase  of,  327. 
rise  of  the  Methodists,  328. 
the  “  Pretender,”  323. 

War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  322. 
war  with  France  for  America,  325. 
war  with  Spain  (Jenkins’  ear),  321. 


George  III,  reign  of  (1760-1820),  329-353. 
American  independence,  337. 
battle  of  Waterloo,  342. 
canal  system  begun,  347. 

Dunning’s  resolution,  330. 
impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings,  337. 
insanity  of  the  King,  353. 
introduction  of  gas,  349. 
law  and  prison  reforms/slave  trade,  338. 
liberty  of  the  press  secured,  338. 
literature,  351. 

Lord  George  Gordon  riots,  337. 

Prince  of  Wales,  regent,  353. 
rebellion  in  Ireland,  344. 
steam  comes  into  use,  347. 
steamboats,  350. 
struggle  with  the  Whigs,  330. 
taxation  of  American  colonies,  330-335. 
the  American  Revolution,  335. 
union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  346. 
War  of  1812  with  the  United  States,  341. 
war  with  France,  340. 

George  IV,  regency  of  (1811-1820),  353. 
reign  of  (1820-1830),  354-359- 
Catholic  emancipation  and  other  reforms, 
357- 

Queen  Caroline  refused  coronation,  356. 
the  “  Manchester  Massacre,”  355. 
the  new  police,  358. 

Gladstone,  372,  386,  387,  404,  408. 
Glastonbury,  first  church  built  in  England 
(63?),  21. 

Glencoe,  massacre  of  (1692),  292. 

Glendower,  rebellion  of  (Henry  IV),  151. 
Godwin,  Earl,  power  of,  44. 

Goffe,  the  regicide,  264. 

Gordon,  “  Chinese,”  406. 

General,  406. 

Lord  George,  riots  (1780),  337. 
Government  (449-1714),  46,  142,  175,  224, 
306. 

beginning  of  Cabinet  system  (1721),  315. 
constitutional,  England's  development 
of,  107,  418. 

House  of  Commons  now  supreme,  368. 
“  personal,”  vs.  constitutional,  180,  181, 
3!4>  3*5>  368,  369. 

rise  of  political  parties  (Charles  II),  271. 
the  first  Prime  Minister  (1721),  315. 
see  Act  of  Settlement,  Bill  of  Rights, 
Cabinet,  Constitution,  Crown,  House 
of  Commons,  Laws,  Magna  Carta, 
Parliament,  Petition  of  Right,  Politi¬ 
cal  Parties, Prime  Minister,  Suffrage ; 
also  Summary  of  Constitutional  His¬ 
tory  and  Constitutional  Documents 
in  the  Appendix. 


INDEX 


Ixvii 


Grattan,  Henry,  345. 

Greek,  study  of  (Henry  VIII),  188. 

Testament  edited  (Henry  VIII),  189. 
“  Green,  wearin’  o’  the”  (song),  345. 
Gregory  and  the  English  slaves,  33. 

Grey,  Lady  Jane,  executed,  206. 

Guilds  (trades  unions),  55,  84,  147. 
Gunpowder  known  to  Roger  Bacon,  128. 
effect  of,  on  war,  129,  184. 
see  Firearms  and  Cannon. 

Gunpowder  Plot,  see  Plots. 

Habeas  Corpus  Act,  see  Laws. 

Hadrian’s  wall,  24. 

Hague  Peace  Conference  (1899),  404. 
Hampden,  Sir  Edmund,  240. 

John,  240,  242,  243,  245,  247,  248,  262. 
John,  refuses  to  pay  ship  money,  242. 
Hampton  Court  Conference  (1604),  231. 
Hargreaves,  348. 

Harley,  Tory  leader  (Anne),  301,  312. 
Harold,  last  of  Saxon  kings,  45. 

killed  at  battle  of  Hastings  (1066),  58. 
Harvey,  Dr.  William,  309. 

Hastings,  battle  of,  see  Battles. 

Hastings,  Warren,  impeached  (1788),  337. 
Hawkins,  Sir  John,  227. 

Hengist  and  Horsa,  30. 

Henry  I,  reign  of  (1100-1135),  71-73. 
action  respecting  the  Church,  72. 
battle  of  Tinchebrai,  72. 
grants  charter,  71. 
organizes  courts  of  justice,  73. 
quarrel  with  Robert,  72. 

Henry  II,  reign  of  (1154-1189),  86-96. 
Becket  excommunicates,  91. 
charter  and  reforms,  87. 
civil  war,  93. 
conquers  the  barons,  94. 

Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  90-91,  93. 

dominions  of,  in  France,  86 

murder  of  Becket,  92 

origin  of  trial  by  jury,  95. 

quarrel  with  Becket,  88-92. 

scutage,  88. 

war  with  France,  88. 

Henry  III,  reign  of  (1216-1272),  108-114. 
civil  war,  1 12. 

curse  of  the  charter  breakers,  112. 
death  of  Simon  de  Montfort,  114. 
his  church-building,  no. 
his  extravagance,  109. 
reissue  of  Magna  Carta,  109. 
renewal  of  Magna  Carta,  112,  113. 
rise  of  House  of  Commons,  113. 

Roger  Bacon’s  work,  no. 
the  “Mad  Parliament,”  in. 


Henry  III,  the  Mendicant  Friars,  no. 

the  Provisions  of  Oxford,  in. 

Henry  IV,  reign  of  (1399-1413),  150-155. 
battle  of  Shrewsbury,  153. 
bold  action  of  Parliament,  152. 
conspiracies  and  revolts,  15 1. 
first  heretic  burned,  153. 
persecution  of  the  Lollards,  153. 

Henry  V,  reign  of  (1413-1422),  155-158. 
battle  of  Agincourt,  156. 

Lollard  revolt,  155. 

Treaty  of  Troyes,  157. 
war  with  France,  156. 

Henry  VI,  reign  of  (1422-1471),  158-166. 
Cade’s  rebellion,  161. 
disfranchisement  of  the  people,  160. 

Joan  of  Arc,  159. 

power  of  the  nobles,  160. 

sent  a  prisoner  to  the  Tower,  166. 

war  with  France,  158. 

Wars  of  the  Roses  begin,  162-166. 

Henry  VII,  reign  of  (1485-1509),  179-187 
Cabot  discovers  American  continent, 
186. 

great  power  of,  180-181. 
marriages,  185. 

methods  of  raising  money,  182. 
organizes  Court  of  Star-Chamber,  183. 
reign  begins  a  new  epoch,  186. 
strengthened  by  artillery,  184. 
stronger  feeling  of  nationality,  181. 
two  Pretenders,  184. 
union  of  houses  of  Lancaster  and  York, 
179- 

world  as  known  in  1485,  185. 

Henry  VIII,  reign  of  (1509-1547),  187-201. 
Act  of  Supremacy,  194. 
alters  the  succession  to  the  crown,  198. 
Anne  Boleyn,  191. 
battle  of  Flodden,  190. 
beheads  Anne  Boleyn,  198. 

“  Defender  of  the  Faith,”  190. 
destroys  the  monasteries,  195- 197. 
distress  of  laboring  classes,  197. 
divorces  Catharine,  192-194. 
encourages  the  “  New  Learning,”  188. 
executes  More  and  Fisher,  195. 
fall  of  Wolsey,  192. 

“  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,”  190. 
made  head  of  the  Church,  194. 
marries  Anne  Boleyn,  194. 
marries  Catharine  of  Aragon,  19 1. 
marries  Jane  Seymour,  198. 
more  mairiages,  199. 
punishes  heresy  and  treason,  200. 
separates  Church  of  England  from 
Rome,  194. 


Ixviii 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Henry  VIII,  subserviency  of  Parliament, 
195,  198. 

what  the  world  owes,  201. 

Heraldry,  145. 

Heretics,  first  law  against,  see  Laws, 
burned  (1401-16x2),  153,  155,  308. 
Elizabeth  puts  to  death,  212. 

Henry  VIII  punishes,  200. 
last  martyr  burned  (1612),  308. 

Mary  puts  to  death,  207-208. 

Hereward,  60. 

High  Commission  Court,  see  Courts. 

Hill,  Sir  Rowland,  374. 

Hogarth’s  pictures  of  the  times,  352. 
Hospitals  founded  by  Edward  VI,  204. 
House  of  Commons,  see  Commons  and  Par¬ 
liament. 

House  tax,  see  Tax. 

Howard,  Catharine  (Henry  VIII),  199. 
Howard,  John,  339. 

Lord  High  Admiral,  221. 

“  Hudibras  ”  and  the  Puritans,  256,  262. 
Hudson,  the  “  Railway  King,”  366. 

Humble  Petition  and  Advice  (1657),  255. 
Hundred  Years’  War  with  France,  see  Wars. 

Impeachment  by  House  of  Commons  (14th 
century),  13 1  ;  Appendix,  xii. 
of  Harley  (1714),  312. 
of  Laud  (1640),  244. 
of  Lord  Bacon  (1621),  237. 
of  Strafford  (1641),  244. 
of  Tory  leaders  (1714),  312. 
of  Warren  Hastings  (1788),  337. 
Impressment  of  Americans  (1812),  342. 
Independence  of  the  United  States  acknowl¬ 
edged  (1782),  337. 

Independents,  244,  247,  249,  307. 

India,  English  possessions  in,  218,  227,  324, 

327- 

(.'live’s  campaigns  in  (1751-1757),  324. 
corruption  in,  338. 

government  of,  transferred  to  the  Crown 
(*857),  381. 
opened  to  trade,  338. 

Sepoy  rebellion  in  (1857),  381. 

Victoria  made  Empress  of  (1876),  381. 
Warren  Hastings  and,  337. 
see  East  India  Company. 

Indulgence,  Charles  II’s  Declaration  of,  270. 
James  II’s  Declaration  of,  279. 

James  IPs  Declaration  of, renewed, 280. 
Industry.and  commerce,  15,  54,  125,  147,  178, 
227,  310,  400,  401,  410,  411. 
see  Agriculture,  Commerce,  Guilds, 
Labor,  Manufactures,  Trade. 
Inoculation  introduced  (1721),  319. 


Insane,  treatment  of  the.  397. 

Instrument  of  Government  (1653),  255. 
Insurrection,  see  Rebellion. 

Intemperance  (18th  century),  327. 

Interdict,  England  under  (1208),  104. 
Intolerable  acts,  the  four  (George  III),  335. 
Inventions,  309,  347. 

see  Cotton  Machinery,  Friction  Match, 
Gas,  Locomotive,  Safety  Lamp, 
Photography,  Steam  Engine,  Tele¬ 
graph. 

Ireland,  early  history  of  (note),  87. 

and  the  Queen’s  Jubilee  (1897),  404. 
battle  of  the  Boyne  (1690),  290. 
boycotting  (1880),  388. 

Catholic  Emancipation  (1829),  357. 
Coercion  Act  (1887),  390. 
colonization  of  (1611),  236. 

Cromwell’s  campaign  in  (1649),  252. 
Dean  Swift  on  the  misery  of  (18th  cen- 
tury),  344. 

Emmet’s  rebellion  (1803),  346. 

English  Church  disestablished  (1869), 

386. 

failure  of  potato  crop  in  (1876),  388. 
Fenians  active  (1881),  389. 
first  Land  Act  (1870),  387. 
free  trade  partially  secured  (1800),  347. 
free  trade  wholly  secured  (19th  century), 
347- 

great  distress  in  (1879),  388. 
great  famine  in  (1845-1846),  377. 
had  no  commercial  liberty  (18th  cen- 
tury),  345. 

Henry  II  partially  conquers,  87. 

Home  Rule  Bill  for  (1893),  404. 

Irish  Parliament  reestablished  (1782), 
345- 

James  IPs  Act  of  Attainder  in  (16S9), 
290. 

James  IPs  campaign  in  (1689),  290. 
Land  League  formed  (1879),  388. 

Land  League  suppressed  (1882),  389. 

“  Lilli  Burlero,”  song  of  (1687),  279. 
Local  Government  Act  for  (1S98),  404. 
made  subject  to  English  Parliament 
(1494)  (note),  182. 

murder  of  Lord  Cavendish  (1882),  389. 
Poynings’  Act  (1494)  (note),  182. 
Poynings’  Act  repealed  (1782),  345. 
rebellion  in  (1595),  223. 
rebellion  in  (1641),  252. 
rebellion  of  (1798),  345. 
reform  of  taxation  of  (1898),  404. 
second  Land  Act  (1881),  3S9. 
siege  of  Londonderry  (1689),  290. 
suffrage  restricted  in  (1829),  357,  358 


INDEX 


lxix 


Ireland,  Tyrconnel  in  (1687),  279. 

union  of,  with  Great  Britain  (1800),  346. 
“United  Irishmen”  organized  (18th 
century),  345. 

violation  of  Treaty  of  Li merick(  169 0,292. 
“  W earin’  o’  the  Green,”  song  (18th  cen¬ 
tury),  345. 

William  Ill’s  campaigns  in  (1689),  290. 
“  Ironsides,”  Cromwell’s  (1645),  247. 
Isabella,  Queen,  murders  Edward  II,  124. 

Jacobites  (1689),  286,  316,  317,  323. 

Jamaica  taken  (Cromwell),  258. 

James  I,  reign  of  (1603-1625),  229-239. 
American  colonies  planted,  234. 
and  the  great  Puritan  Petition,  230. 
and  the  House  of  Commons,  233. 
appearance  and  character  of,  230. 
colonization  of  Ireland,  236. 
execution  of  Raleigh,  238. 
favorites  of,  233. 

Hampton  Court  Conference,  231. 
how  he  raised  money,  237. 
impeachment  of  Bacon,  237. 

King  by  Act  of  Parliament,  229. 
Parliament’s  independent  stand,  237. 
the  “Addled  Parliament,”  236. 
the  “  Divine  Right  of  Kings,”  232. 
the  first  newspaper,  236. 
the  Gunpowder  Plot,  233. 
the  Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  234. 

James,  Duke  of  York,  271. 
see  Exclusion  Bill. 

James  II,  reign  of  (1685-1689),  275-285. 
and  Magdalen  College,  280. 
battle  of  Sedgemoor,  276. 
birth  of  a  son  to,  282. 

Declaration  of  Indulgence,  279,  280. 
desire  to  restore  Catholicism,  275. 
desire  to  rule  independently  of  Parlia¬ 
ment,  275. 

flight  of,  to  France,  283. 
imprisons  the  Seven  Bishops,  281. 
invitation  to  William  of  Orange,  282. 
Monmouth’s  rebellion,  275. 

Revolution  of  1688,  284. 
the  “  Bloody  Assizes,”  277. 

Jameson  raid,  the  (1895),  409. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  descent  of,  33. 

Jeffreys,  Judge,  cruelty  of,  277. 

“  Jenkins’  Ear,”  War  of,  see  Wars. 
Jennings,  Sarah,  Duchess  of  Marlborough, 
300. 

Jerusalem  Chamber,  154. 

Jesuits  (Elizabeth),  210. 

put  to  death  (Elizabeth),  212. 
see  Plots. 


Jews,  Richard  I  extorts  money  from  the, 
98. 

admitted  to  Parliament  (1858),  384. 
Cromwell  lets  them  return,  257. 
expelled  from  England  (1290),  118. 

“  Jingo  policy,”  410. 

song  (note),  410. 

Joan  of  Arc  (1429-1431),  159. 

burned  (1431),  159. 

John,  reign  of  (1199-1216),  102-108. 
barons  invite  Louis  of  France,  107. 
battle  of  Bouvines,  105. 
death  of,  108. 

excommunicated  and  deposed,  104. 
good  result  of  loss  of  Normandy,  103. 
grants  the  Great  Charter,  106. 
interdict  laid  on  England,  104. 
loses  Normandy,  103. 
murder  of  Prince  Arthur,  102. 
quarrels  with  the  Church,  104. 
submits  to  the  Pope,  104. 
the  barons  demand  the  Great  Charter, 
105. 

tries  to  break  the  Charter,  107. 
value  of  Magna  Carta,  106. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  295,  351. 

Jubilee,  Victoria’s  (1887),  391,  392. 

the  “  Diamond”  (1897),  392. 

“  Junius  ”  attacks  George  1 1 1,  338. 

Juries,  grand,  organized,  95. 

Jury,  origin  of  trial  by,  95. 

Justice,  administration  of,  50,  73,  77,  90,  243, 
270,  273,  277,  280,  284. 
see  Courts,  Jury,  Laws. 

Jutes,  the,  enter  Britain,  30. 

King,  power  of  the  Saxon,  46-48. 
allowance  to,  373. 
and  Act  of  Settlement,  288. 
choice  of,  by  Parliament,  175. 
choice  of,  by  the  Witan,  47. 
dispensing  power  of,  279. 

“  Divine  Right  of  Kings,”  232,  239,  295, 
302,  306. 

Dunning's  famous  resolution  respecting 
the  (1780),  330. 

feudal  dues  of,  abolished  (1660),  273. 
“George,  be”  (George  III),  330. 
has  lost  power  of  veto,  369. 
has  no  political  power  to-day,  368-369. 
now  the  creature  of  Parliament,  288. 
office  of,  abolished  (1649),  251. 
office  of,  restored  (1660),  261. 
power  of,  limited,  288;  (note),  373. 
power  of,  under  the  Tudors,  180,  181. 
195,  198. 

receives  annual  allowance  (1660),  273. 


lxx 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


King,  succession  of,  to  the  crown,  47,  175, 
ig8;  (note),  205. 
the  Norman,  76. 
the,  vs.  the  barons,  69,  104-106. 
under  Bill  of  Rights  (1688),  288. 
see  Crown,  Constitution,  Cabinet,  Gov¬ 
ernment,  Magna  Carta,  Petition  of 
Right,  Bill  of  Rights. 

“  King  Monmouth,”  see  Monmouth. 

“  King's  evil,”  touching  for  the,  295. 

“  King's  friends,”  the  (George  III),  338. 

“  Kirke’s  Lambs”  (1685),  277. 

Kitchener,  Lord,  406. 

Knights  and  knighthood,  81,  129,  145. 

motto  of,  417. 

Knights  Hospitallers,  144. 

Knights  Templars,  144. 

Labor  organizations  (guilds),  55,  84,  147. 
Arch’s  agricultural  union,  385. 
boycotting  in  Ireland,  388. 
discouraging  outlook  of  agricultural,  400. 
distress,  132,  135,  197,  202,  348,  355*388, 
392,  400. 

effect  of  steam  on,  348. 

effects  of  “  Black  Death  ”  on  (1349),  132. 

effects  of  enclosure  of  commons  on,  202. 

eight-hour  day  established  (note),  400. 

great  strike  of  (1349),  132. 

in  Ireland,  see  Ireland. 

insurrections,  135-137,  348. 

laws  concerning  (1349),  132. 

laws  concerning  (1833),  364-365. 

laws  concerning  (1871-1876),  400. 

organizations  (trades  unions),  400. 

progress  of  laboring  classes,  400. 

reforms,  364,  365,  400. 

representation  of,  in  Parliament,  376, 

385. 

severe  laws  against  combinations  of,  400. 
severe  laws  against,  repealed,  400. 
troubles,  132,  135—137,  148. 
see  Agriculture,  Trade,  Laws,  Guilds, 
Manufactures. 

Lamb,  Charles,  351. 

Lancaster,  house  of,  150. 

Red  Rose,  164. 

Lancaster  and  York,  union  of,  179. 
Lancastrian  and  Yorkist  period  (1399-1485), 
^75- 

Land  tenure  (449-1066),  47. 

Act,  Irish  (1870),  387. 

Act,  Irish  (1881),  389. 
church,  72. 
entail  of,  119,  371. 
feudal  grants  of,  49,  370. 

Folkland,  48. 


Land,  grants  to  Peers,  370. 

grants  by  Henry  VIII,  197. 

grants  by  William  I,  61. 

great  survey  of  (1085),  65. 

important  laws  respecting  (1285-1290), 

119,  143. 

League  in  Ireland  (1879),  388. 

Monastic  confiscated  by  Henry  VIII, 

197- 

out  of  cultivation  at  present,  401. 
present  ownership  of,  370,  371,  402. 
responsibility  of  land  holders,  370. 
seizure  of  unenclosed  (1547-1553),  202. 
small  agricultural  holdings,  401. 
tenure  (1066-1154),  78. 
see  Agriculture,  Feudalism,  Labor, 
Laws,  Taxation,  Villeins. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  242,  244. 

Law,  common,  the,  47,  51. 
canon  or  church,  90,  112. 
courts,  see  Courts. 

Dispensing  Power  (note),  279,  280,  281. 
Henry  VIII’s  proclamations  were,  195. 
how  made,  47,  76,  113,  115;  (note),  373. 
see  Parliament  and  Laws. 

Laws,  Act  of  Settlement  (1701),  288. 

Administration  of  Justice  (1774)1  335- 
Agricultural  Holdings  Act  (1892),  401. 
Alfred’s  (871-901),  40. 

Arms,  Assize  of  (1181)  (note),  88. 

Army  Commission  Purchase  Act  (1871), 
395- 

Articles  of  Religion  (1552),  203. 

Articles  of  Religion  (1563),  212. 

Assize  of  Arms  (1181)  (note),  88. 

Assize  of  Clarendon  (1166)  (note),  94. 
Assize,  Grand,  the  (1189)  (note),  94. 

Assize  of  Northampton  (1176)  (note),  94.  , 

Attainder,  Act  of  (1689),  290. 

Attainder,  Acts  of  (Henry  VIII),  195. 
Ballot  Act  (1872),  396. 

Bill  of  Rights  (1689),  287. 

Board  Schools  Act  (1870),  386. 

Boston  Port  Act  (1774),  335- 
Bribery  Act  (1883)  (note),  396. 

Canon  (1236),  112. 

Catholic  Emancipation  Act  (1829),  357. 
Chimney  Sweep  Act  (1833),  365. 
Civil-Service  Reform  Act  (1870),  395. 
Clerical  Subscription  Act  (1866)  (note), 
212. 

Coercion  Act  (1887),  390. 
compulsory  church  rates  repealed  (1868), 

386- 

Conformity  Act  (James  I),  232. 
Conformity,  Occasional,  Act  (1711) 
(note),  302. 


INDEX 


lxxi 


Laws,  Conspiracy  Acts  (1825),  400. 

Constitutions  of  Clarendon  (1164),  90. 
Conventicle  Act  (1664),  265. 

Com  Law  Act  (1837),  400. 

Com  Law  Act  repealed  (1846),  378,  400. 
Corporation  Act  (1661),  264. 

Corporation  Act  repealed  (1828),  357. 
County  Councils  Act  (1888),  385,  394. 
Death  Duties  Act  (1894),  402. 

De  Donis  (1285),  119  (note),  143. 
Disabling  Act  (1678),  271. 
Disestablishment  of  Irish  Church  (1869) 
(note),  386. 

Disfranchisement  Act  (1430),  160,  175 
Education  Act  (1870),  386. 

Education  Act  (1891),  398. 

Edward  the  Confessor’s  (1042),  59,  105. 
employment  of  women  and  children 
(1833)*  365-  . 

Englishry  (William  I),  63. 

Entail  (1285),  119,  143- 
Excise  Tax  Act  (1643),  247. 

Factory  Reform  Act  (1833),  364. 
Five-Mile  Act  (1665),  265. 

Forest  Acts  (William  I),  64. 

Habeas  Corpus  Act  (1679),  273. 

Heresy,  Statute  of  (1401)1  1 53 »  176. 
House  Tax  (1851),  379. 

Indemnity  Act  (1727),  357. 

Irish  Church  disestablished  (1869),  386. 
Irish  Land  Act  (1870),  387. 

Irish  Land  Act  (1881,  1887),  389. 

Irish  Local  Government  Act  (1898),  404. 
Jews,  Emancipation  Act  (1858),  384. 
Judicature  Acts  (1873,  1877),  396. 

Land  Acts  (1285-1290),  119,  143,  144. 
Labor  Acts  (1349),  132. 

Labor  Acts  (1825),  400. 

Labor  Acts  (1833),  364,  365. 

Labor  Acts  (1871-1876),  400. 

Labor  Acts  (1894)  (note),  400. 

Land,  Irish  (1870),  387. 

Land,  Irish  (1881),  389. 

Land  League,  Irish,  suppressed  (1881), 
389- 

Liveries,  Statute  of  (Henry  VII),  183. 
Local  Government  Act  (1888),  385,  394. 
Local  Government  Act,  Irish  (1898),  404. 
manufactures,  colonial,  332. 

Mortmain  (1279),  119,  143,  144. 
Municipal  Reform  Act  (1835),  393- 
Mutiny  Act  (1689),  286,  289. 

Navigation  Acts  (1651-1672),  257,  331. 
Navigation  Acts  repealed  (1849),  378. 
Oaths  Act  (1888),  384. 

Occasional  Conformity  Act  (1711)  (note), 
302. 


Laws,  Parish  Councils  Act  (1894),  385,  394. 
Parish  Councils,  applied  to  Ireland 
(1898),  404. 

Petition  of  Right  (1628),  240-241. 

Poll  Tax  Act  (1381),  135. 

Poor  Law  (1601),  223. 

Poor  Law  (1834),  392. 

Postage  Act,  Cheap  (1840),  374. 
Poynings’  Act  (Ireland)  (1494)  (note), 
182. 

Poynings’  Act  repealed  (1782),  345. 
Praemunire,  Statute  of  (1353),  13 1,  144, 
i93- 

Press  Censorship  Act  expires  (1695),  289. 
Property  Qualification  Act  (1711)  (note), 
375- 

Property  Qualification  Act,  repealed 
(1858)  (note),  375. 

Provisions  of  Oxford  (1258),  in. 
Provisors,  Statute  of  (1351),  131,  144. 
Quebec  Act  (1774),  335- 
Quia  Emptores  (1290),  119,  143. 

Reform  Act  (1832),  363. 

Reform  Act  (1867),  384. 

Reform  Act  (1884),  385. 

Registration  Act  (1843),  396- 
Regulating  Act  (1774),  335. 

Royal  Marriage  Act  (1772)  (note),  356. 
Schism  Act  (1714)  (note),  302. 

Septennial  Act  (1716),  317. 

Settlement  Act  (1701),  288. 

“  Six  Acts”  (1819),  355. 

“  Six  Articles  ”  (1539),  199. 

Slave  Trade  Abolition  Act  (1807),  340. 
Slavery  Abolition  Act  (1833),  364- 
Stamp  Act  (Anne),  379. 

Stamp  Act  repealed  (1855),  379. 

Stamp  Act,  Colonial  (1765),  332,  333. 
Stamp  Act,  Colonial,  repealed  (1766;, 
333- 

Supremacy  Act  (1534),  194. 

Supremacy  Act  (1559),  212. 

Tallage  repealed,  Appendix,  xxx. 

Tea  Duty  Act  (1767),  333. 

Test  Act  (1673),  270. 

Test  Act  suspended  (1687),  279. 

Test  Act  repealed  (1828),  357. 

Toleration  Act  (1689),  286,  289. 
trade,  colonial  (George  III),  331,  332. 
trade,  free  (1849),  378. 

Trades  Unions  Acts  (1871-1876),  400. 
Triennial  Act  (1641),  244. 

Triennial  Act  partially  repealed  (1664) 
(note),  244. 

Triennial  Act  reenacted  (1694)  (note) 
244- 

Uniformity  Act  (1549),  203. 


lxxii 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Laws,  Uniformity  Act  (1552),  203. 

Uniformity  Act  (1559),  21 1. 

Uniformity  Act  (1662),  264. 
union  of  England  and  Scotland  (1707), 
303- 

union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  (1800), 
346. 

university,  religious  tests  abolished 
(>871),  398. 

Winchester,  Statute  of  (1285),  11S. 
Window'  Tax  repealed  (1851),  379. 
Woman  Suffrage  Act  (1835),  3$4- 
Laws  relating  to  the  army,  88,  2S6,  2S9,  395, 
396- 

church,  1 19,  131,  143,  144,  153,  176,  193, 
203,  211,  212,  232,  264,  270,  279,  302, 
357,  385,  386,  398. 
civil  service,  395. 
colonies,  332,  333,  335. 
commerce,  257,  331,  340,  378. 
constitution,  240,  241,  273,  288,  303,  346. 
crime,  31 1. 
education,  386,  398. 
elections,  160,  175,  363,  384,  385,  396. 
labor,  132,  364,  365,  400. 
land,  1 19,  143,  389,  400,  401. 
local  government,  385,  394,  404. 
manufactures,  332. 

Parliament,  244,  271,  317,  357,  375,  384. 
poor,  223,  392. 
press,  289. 

public  order,  17,  11S,  119,  355,  392. 
religion,  153,  176,  199,  203,212,  264,  265, 
286,  289,  357,  384,  398. 
suffrage,  160,  175,  363,  3S4,  385,  396. 
tariff,  378,  400,  401. 

taxation,  332,  333.  379,  400;  Appendix 
(note),  xxx. 
trade,  332,  378. 

League  and  Covenant,  see  Covenant. 

“  Learning,  the  New,”  188. 

Legislation,  see  Laws  and  Parliament. 
Letters,  see  Post-Office  and  Postal  Reform. 
“  Levellers,”  the,  252. 

Liberal  party  (1833),  364. 

Liberty,  colonial,  331. 

constitutional,  see  Bill  of  Rights,  Ha¬ 
beas  Corpus,  Magna  Carta,  Petition 
of  Right, 
of  labor,  400. 

political,  363,  384,  385,  393,  394,  396. 
of  the  press,  289. 

religious,  286,  289,  357,  3S4,  386,  398. 
of  serfs  and  villeins,  137. 
of  trade  and  commerce,  378. 

Ij.ife,  mode  of,  148,  217,  228,  31 1. 

“  Lilli  Burlero,”  song  of,  279. 


Lisle,  Alice,  executed  (1685),  278. 

Literature,  52,  53,  82,  137. 

beginning  of  English,  133. 
later,  146,  217,  218,  226,  304,  308,  309, 
35C  390,  39*- 

Loans  extorted  by  kings,  240. 
see  Benevolences. 

Lollards,  rise  of  the  (14th  century),  139,  144. 
persecution  of  the  (1401),  153. 
insurrection  of  (1413),  155. 
see  Wycliffe. 

London  founded,  19,  20. 

William  I’s  charter  to,  59. 
the  “  city  ”  of  (note),  393. 

“  Stone,”  161. 

Tower  of,  built,  61. 
on  side  of  political  liberty, 
plague  in  (1665),  267. 
great  fire  of  (1666),  267. 

“the  lights  of,”  350. 

Londonderry,  siege  of  (16S9),  290. 

“  Long  Parliament,”  the,  see  Parliament. 

“  Lords  Appellant”  (1388),  140. 

Louis  XIV  and  Charles  II,  269,  270. 
and  James  II,  284,  290. 
and  “  Pretender,”  298,  303. 
and  Anne,  298. 
and  William  III,  293. 

Ludd’s  insurrection  (1811),  348. 

Lyudhurst,  Lord,  371. 

Macadam's  improved  roads  (1798-1827),  365. 
Macdonald,  Flora,  and  the  “  Pretender,”  323. 
Machinery,  the  steam  engine  invented  (1698), 

309- 

the  steam  engine  improved  (1712),  309. 
the  steam  engine  patented  by  Watt 
(1769),  347- 

cotton  (18th  century),  348. 

Ludd’s  insurrection  against  (1811),  348. 
Stephenson’s  locomotive  (1830),  365. 

“  Mad  Parliament,”  see  Parliament. 

Magna  Carta  (1215),  105,  106. 
terms  and  value  of,  106. 
confirmed,  107. 

reissued  by  Henry  III,  109,  112. 
curse  pronounced  on  breakers  of  (1253), 
112. 

forms  part  of  “  the  Bible  of  English 
liberty,”  287. 

see  Charters,  Constitution,  and  Govern¬ 
ment. 

Mahan,  Captain,  cited  (note),  419. 

“  Manchester  Massacre,”  the  (1819),  355. 
Manners  and  customs,  see  Life,  modes  of. 
Manor-houses,  218,  227. 

Manufactures, woollen,  introduced  (1339),  125. 


INDEX 


lxxiii 


Manufactures,  restrictions  on  American  (18th 
century),  332. 

Margaret  of  Anjou,  159,  165,  167. 

Mark,  value  of  the  (note),  88. 

Marlborough’s  campaigns  (1702-1709),  299. 

the  Duchess  of,  and  Anne,  300,  301. 
Martyrs,  religious,  139,  153,  155,  176,  195, 
200,  207,  212,  285,  308. 

Mary,  Princess,  198. 

Queen,  reign  of  (1553— 1558)*  205-209. 
Wyatt’s  rebellion,  206. 
execution  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  206. 
marries  Philip  II  of  Spain,  206. 
attempts  to  restore  Catholicism,  206. 
persecution  of  Protestants,  207. 
loses  Calais,  208. 

deserves  pity  rather  than  hatred,  208. 
Mary,  Queen  (see  William  and  Mary),  270. 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  203,  219,  220,  224. 
beheaded,  220. 

Masham,  Mrs.,  and  Queen  Anne,  301. 

Mason  and  Slidell  (1861),  382. 

Match,  the  friction  (1834),  366. 

Matilda  claims  crown  (1139),  73- 
Maude  claims  crown  (1x39),  73- 
Meetings,  public,  suppressed  (1819),  355. 
Mendicant  Friars  (see  Friars),  no,  138. 
Methodists,  rise  of  the  (1739),  328- 
Middlesex,  origin  of  name,  32. 

Military  affairs  (1066-1154),  78. 

(1154-1399),  144- 
(1399-1485),  176. 

(1485-1603),  225. 

(1603-1714),  308. 

see  Armor,  Arms,  Army,  Artillery,  Bat¬ 
tles,  Feudalism,  Gunpowder,  Mili¬ 
tia,  Mutiny  Act,  Navy,  Scutage, 
Wars. 

Militia,  national,  52,  78,  88. 

Charles  I  and  the,  246. 

Parliament  and  the,  246. 
see  Military  Affairs. 

Milton,  John,  251,  262,  263,  266. 

Mines,  employment  of  women  and  children 
in,  365. 

Ministers,  the,  “are  king,”  316. 

Crown  cannot  now  remove,  368. 
see  Cabinet,  Constitution,  Government, 
Prime  Minister. 

Missionaries  (Roman-Britain),  21. 
(Saxon-Britain),  33,  34. 

Augustine’s  (59 7),  33. 

Mendicant  Friars  (1221),  no. 

Wycliffe’s  “  Poor  Priests  ”  (1378),  138. 
Wesley’s  work  (18th  century),  328. 
see  Christianity,  Church,  Friars,  Monks, 
Religion. 


Monasteries  built  (Saxon  period),  35,  36. 
good  work  done  in,  35,  36,  197,  204. 
schools  connected  with,  35,  82,  204. 
books  written  in,  35,  36,  53,  82. 
attacked  by  Danes,  38. 
reforms  in,  41,  63,  110. 
decline  of,  188. 

destroyed  by  Henry  VIII  (1536-1539), 
195- 

effect  of  destruction  of,  197. 

Money,  Parliament  gets  control  of  nation’s 
(1407),  152. 

how  Henry  VII  extorted,  182. 
how  James  I  raised,  237. 
extorted  by  Charles  I,  240. 
how  Charles  II  obtained,  269. 
bills  must  originate  with  House  of  Com¬ 
mons,  152,  372  ;  Appendix,  xii. 
value  of,  varies,  79,  88,  135,  175. 
see  Benevolences,  House  of  Commons. 
Monk,  Admiral,  258. 

General,  260. 

Monks,  labors  of  the,  35,  36. 

literary  work  of  the,  35,  36,  53,  82. 
educational  work  of  the,  35,  82,  204. 
charitable  work  of  the,  197. 
vs.  the  regular  clergy,  41. 

Dunstan’s  labors  among  the,  41. 
reforms  among  the,  41,  63,  no. 
effect  of  destruction  of  monasteries  on, 
197- 

see  Monasteries. 

Monmouth,  Duke  of,  272. 

Monmouth’s  rebellion  (James  II),  275,  276. 
execution,  276. 

Monopolies,  Elizabeth  gives  up,  216. 

revived  by  Charles  I,  241. 

Montagu,  Lady,  319. 

Montrose,  Duke  of,  253. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  and  the  “  New  Learn¬ 
ing,”  189. 

Utopia,  217. 
beheaded  (1535),  195. 

Mortimer,  Roger,  123,  125. 

Mortimer’s  claim  to  the  crown  (1399),  150, 
161. 

“Morton’s  Fork”  (Henry  VII),  1S2. 
Municipal  reform  (1835),  384. 

Mutiny  Aci,  see  Laws. 

Names,  Celtic,  Danish,  Norman,  Roman, 
Saxon,  12,  13. 

Napoleon’s  intended  invasion  of  England 
(1804),  340. 

Napoleon  beaten  at  Waterloo  (1815),  343. 
National  Council  (Saxon),  45,  47,  48. 
(Norman),  76. 


lxxiv  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


National  Council  (Parliament)  (1246),  109. 
National  Debt,  see  Debt. 

Nationality,  growth  of  feeling  of  (1485),  1S1, 
182. 

Navigation  Laws  enforced  (1760),  331. 
see  Laws. 

Navigation,  steam,  350. 

Navy,  in  general,  14,  40,  52,  146,  222,  226, 
258,  340-341,  342. 

Alfred’s,  40,  52. 

(1154-1399),  146. 

(1485-1603),  226. 

rise  of  the  English  from  1588,  222. 
English,  beaten  by  Americans  (1812), 
342. 

see  Armada,  Battles,  Blake,  Monk, 
Nelson,  Russell. 

Nelson,  Admiral,  222,  340-341. 

New  Forest,  64. 

New  Model  ”  army  (see  Army),  247. 
Newspaper,  the  first  regular  (1622),  236. 

the  first  daily  (1703),  304. 

Newspapers,  rise  of  political  (1642-1649), 
247- 

censorship  of,  removed  (1689),  289,  338. 
report  debates  in  Parliament  (George 

III),  338. 

tax  on,  repealed  (1855),  379. 

New  Style  [reckoning  time]  (1752),  325. 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  discovers  law  of  gravita¬ 
tion,  273. 
epitaph  on,  273. 

New  York,  origin  of  the  name,  266. 

New  Zealand,  England  acquires,  327. 
progress  of,  402. 

Nobility,  Saxon  (1449-1066),  48,  61. 

Norman  (1066-1154),  78. 
how  titles  of,  are  conferred  (note),  143. 
wealth  of  the  (15th  century),  160. 
dangerous  quarrels  of  (15th  century), 
160. 

destruction  of,  by  Wars  of  the  Roses 
(i455-I485).  !74.  180. 

English  contrasted  with  French,  370. 
the  new  (Henry  VIII),  197,  370. 
enclose  common  lands  (1547-1553),  202. 
present  condition  of  the,  370. 
number  of  degrees  of  the  (note),  143. 
children  of,  are  commoners,  370. 
courtesy  titles  of  children  of,  371. 
most  old  families  of,  are  now  extinct, 
370. 

are  recruited  from  the  people,  371. 
property  of,  entailed,  371. 
are  politically  conservative,  371. 
number  of,  in  House  of  Lords  371. 
see  Barons,  Feudalism,  Peeis. 


Nonconformists  driven  out  of  England,  232. 
234- 

vs.  Dissenters  (note),  264. 
see  Religion. 

Non- Jurors  (1689),  286. 

Normandy,  John’s  loss  of  (1204),  103. 

Edward  III  renounces  claim  to  (1360), 
130. 

Norman  invasion  of  England  (1066),  56. 
Norman  kings  (1066-1154),  56. 

Normans,  see  Northmen. 

North,  Lord,  330. 

Northmen  invade  England  (871),  38. 
invade  France,  42. 
get  name  of  Normans,  42. 
what  they  did  for  England,  45. 
see  Alfred,  Danes,  Treaty  of  Wedmore. 

Oates,  Titus,  and  the  “  Popish  Plot  ”  (1678), 
270,  275. 

O’Connell,  Daniel,  358. 

Oldcastle,  Sir  John  (1413),  155. 

Old  Sarum  (“  rotten  borough  ”),  361. 

Old  Style  (reckoning  time)  (1752),  325. 

“  Opium  war,”  the,  see  War  (China,  1839). 
Orange  Free  State,  407,  409,  410. 

annexed  (1900),  410. 

Orangemen,  origin  of  the  name,  290. 

in  rebellion  of  1798,  346. 

Orange-Stuart,  House  of  (1689-1702),  285. 
Ordeal,  trial  by  (Saxon  period),  50. 
Ordinances  of  Reform  (1310),  122. 

Orleans,  Siege  of,  see  Battles. 

Outlanders  in  the  Transvaal,  409. 

“  Over  the  Water  to  Charlie  ”  (song),  323. 
Oxford,  no,  146,  188,  280. 

Provisions  of  (1258).  hi. 

Oxygen,  Priestley  discovers  (1774),  349. 

Palatine  Counties,  62. 

Panic,  financial  (“  South  Sea  Bubble,”  1720), 
3 1 7-3 19. 

financial,  Bank  of  England  suspends  pay¬ 
ment  (1797,  181 1),  344. 
railway  (1S47-1849),  366. 

Chartist  demonstration  (184S),  375. 
Parish  Councils  Act,  see  Laws. 

Parliament,  Acts  of,  see  Laws, 
name  first  used  (1246),  109. 
rise  of  the  House  of  Commons  (1265), 
113- 

first  complete  and  regular  (1295),  115. 
first  complete  and  regular,  Appendix, xi. 
gets  sole  right  to  levy  taxes  (1297), 
117. 

the  Commons  gain  share  in  legislation 
(1322),  122. 


INDEX 


lxxv 


Parliament,  is  divided  into  two  distinct 
Houses  (1332-1343),  13 1,  143- 
House  of  Commons  gains  power  of  im¬ 
peachment  (1376),  13 1  ;  Appendix, 
xii. 

gets  control  of  the  nation’s  purse  (Edward 

hi),  131- 

limits  votes  of  money  to  specific  pur¬ 
poses  (1406),  Appendix,  xii. 

House  of  Commons  gains  the  sole  right 
to  make  grants  of  money  (1407), 
152,  372- 

House  of  Commons  and  money  grants 
(i4°7)»  Appendix,  xii. 
rights  of  electors  to,  restricted  (1430), 
160,  161. 

property  qualification  for  members  im¬ 
posed  (1436),  160,  161. 
imposes  checks  on  Henry  VII  (1 4851,181 . 
abbots  cease  to  sit  in  the  House  of 
Lords  (1539),  197- 

subserviency  of,  to  Henry  VIII  (1539), 
195, 198. 

gives  Henry  VIII ’s  proclamations  force 
of  law  (1539),  195. 

Catholics  excluded  from  House  of  Com¬ 
mons  (1559),  212. 
makes  James  I  king  (1603),  229. 

House  of  Commons  controls  its  elec¬ 
tions  (1604),  Appendix,  xv. 
and  Gunpowder  Plot  (1605),  233. 

House  of  Commons  and  great  protest 
(1621),  233. 

James  I  tears  record  of  House  of  Com¬ 
mons  (1621),  233. 

Charles  I  and  the  Petition  of  Right 
(1628),  240. 

Grand  Remonstrance  of  House  of  Com¬ 
mons  (1641),  244. 
first  Triennial  Act  (1641),  244. 

Charles  I  attempts  to  arrest  five  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  House  of  Commons 
(1642),  245. 

raises  an  army  (civil  war)  (1642),  246. 
Pride’s  purge  of  (1648),  249. 

House  of  Lords  abolished  (1649),  251. 
Cromwell  expels  (1653),  254. 

House  of  Lords  restored  (1660),  261  ; 
Appendix,  xviii. 

Catholics  totally  excluded  from  both 
Houses  of  (1678-1829),  271. 
changes  succession  to  the  crown  (Bill  of 
Rights,  1689),  287-288. 
gets  entire  control  of  the  army  (Mutiny 
Act,  1689),  286. 

Triennial  Act  reenacted  (1694)  (note), 
244- 


Parliament  limits  succession  to  Protestants 
(1701),  288. 

property  qualification  imposed  on  (1711) 
(note),  375. 

Septennial  Act  (1716)  (note),  244,  316. 
George  III  gets  control  of  (1760),  330. 
House  of  Commons  ceases  to  be  a  rep¬ 
resentative  body  (1760),  330. 
report  of  debates  of,  begin  (1771),  339. 
Dunning’s  resolution  in  (1780),  330. 
right  of  people  to  elect  candidates  of 
their  choice  to  (1782),  conceded, 
Appendix,  xxvi. 

Catholics  readmitted  to  (1829),  357. 
many  large  towns  not  represented  in 
(1832),  360. 

effects  of  Reform  Bill  on  (1832),  363. 
Registration  Act  (1843),  396. 
publication  of  Division  Lists  (1857),  Ap¬ 
pendix  (note),  xxvi. 

Jews  admitted  to  (1858),  384. 

Second  Reform  Act  (1867),  384,  394. 

the  Ballot  Act  (1872),  396. 

the  Bribery  Act  (1883)  (note),  396. 

Third  Reform  Act  (1884),  385,  394. 
religious  tests  in,  abolished  (1888),  398. 
sovereign  can  no  longer  veto  acts  of,  369. 
House  of  Commons  now  supreme,  368. 

Parliaments  (special),  “  Addled  ”  (1614),  236. 
“  Barebone’s”  (1653),  254. 
first  “  Convention  ”  (1660),  260. 
second  “  Convention  ”  (1689),  285. 

De  Montfort’s  (1265),  113. 
the  “  Good”  (1376),  133. 
the  Irish,  see  Ireland, 
the  “  Long”  (1640-1660),  244. 
the  “  Mad  ”  (1258),  11 1. 
the  lt  Merciless  ”  (1388),  140. 
of  Merton  (1236),  112,  144. 
the  “  Model  ”  (1295),  115. 
first  “  People’s  ”  (1886),  385. 
the  “  Rump  ”  (1648-1653,  1659),  250,  251, 
254,  260,  261. 
the  “  Short  ”  (1640),  243. 
see,  in  general,  Bill  of  Rights,  Cabinet, 
Charters,  Constitution,  Elections, 
Government,  House  of  Commons, 
Ireland,  Impeachment,  Laws,  Mag¬ 
na  Carta,  Mutiny  Act,  National 
Council,  Peers,  Petition  of  Right, 
Political  Parties,  Prime  Ministers, 
Reform  Acts,  Scotland,  Suffrage, 
Summary  of  Constitutional  History 
in  Appendix,  Taxation,  Witan, 
Witenagemot. 

Parr,  Catherine,  Queen  of  Henry  VIII,  199. 

Parties,  political,  see  Political  Parties. 


lxxvi 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Pauperism  (Henry  VIII),  197,  198. 
(Elizabeth),  223. 

(1603-1714),  310. 

(George  IV),  355. 

(Victoria),  392. 

Poor  Law  of  1601,  223. 

Poor  Law  of  1834,  392. 

Peace  Conference,  the  Hague  (1899),  404. 
Conference,  the  Hague,  see  Treaties, 
of  Brdtigny,  see  Treaties, 
of  Ryswick,  see  Treaties, 
of  Utrecht,  see  Treaties. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  358,  376,  400. 

Peerage  (note),  143,  197,  369-373- 
general  sketch  of  the,  369-373. 
how  men  are  raised  to  the,  370. 
have  generally  opposed  reforms,  371-372. 
see  Barons,  House  of  Lords,  Land,  No¬ 
bility,  Peers. 

Peers,  total  number  of,  now,  371. 

are  recruited  from  the  people,  371. 
William  IV  grants  power  to  create  new, 

363- 

own  large  part  of  the  land,  371. 
see  Barons,  Nobility,  Peerage. 

Penance  of  Henry  II,  93. 

Penny,  value  of  (Henry  II)  (note),  88. 

value  of,  as  wages  (1381),  135- 
People,  progress  of  the  English,  410-4 12. 
Percies,  revolt  of  the  (Henry  IV),  15 1. 
Perrers,  Alice,  and  Edward  III,  134. 
Persecution  of  Catholics  by  Elizabeth,  212. 
of  Catholics  by  Cromwell,  256. 
of  Catholics  by  Charles  II,  264,  265. 
of  Catholics  in  1689,  287. 
of  Catholics  by  William  and  Mary,  292. 
of  Covenanters  by  Charles  II,  265. 
of  Dissenters  by  Charles  II,  264,  265. 
of  Dissenters  by  Anne,  302. 
of  Episcopalians  (1647),  248. 
of  Lollards  by  Henry  IV,  153. 
of  Pilgrims  by  James  I,  234. 
of  Protestants  by  Mary,  207. 
of  Puritans  by  James  I,  232,  234-236. 
of  Puritans  by  Charles  I,  242. 
of  Unitarians  by  James  I,  285,  308. 
of  Unitarians  (16S9),  287. 
see  Catholics,  Ireland,  Heresy,  Laws, 
Lollards,  Protestants,  Puritans, 
Religion,  Scotland. 

Personal  government  or  sovereignty,  180, 
181,  224,  330,  368. 

government,  see  Crown,  King,  Govern¬ 
ment. 

“  Peterloo,”  the  massacre  of  (1819),  355. 
Petition,  the  great  Puritan  (1603),  230. 
the  “  Millenary”  (1603),  231. 


Petition  of  Right,  the  (1628),  240;  Appendix, 
xvi,  xxix. 

of  the  Seven  Bishops  (1688),  281. 
of  the  Chartists  (1848),  375. 

“  Petitioners”  (note),  271. 

Petroleum,  introduction  of,  399. 

Pevensey,  27,  31,  57. 

Philip  II  marries  Queen  Mary  (1554),  206. 
wishes  to  marry  Elizabeth  (1558),  214. 
sends  the  Armada  against  England 
(1588),  221. 

Philippa,  Queen,  at  Calais  (1347),  130. 
Photography,  introduction  of  (1839),  399- 
“  Piers  Plowman”  written  (1369),  133. 
Pilgrims,  the,  go  to  Holland  and  America, 

234\ 

Chaucer's  Canterbury,  137. 

Pillory,  the,  311. 

Pitt,  William  (Earl  of  Chatham),  could  not 
be  bribed,  320. 

Pittsburgh  named  for,  326. 
and  the  American  Revolution,  333. 
labors  to  abolish  the  slave  trade,  340. 
secures  the  union  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  (1800),  346. 

labors  for  Catholic  representation  in 
Parliament,  346. 

Plague  (“  Black  Death,”  1349),  132. 
effects  on  labor,  132. 
in  London  (1665),  267. 

Plot  against  Henry  II,  96. 

Richard  I,  100. 

Edward  II,  124. 

Henry  IV,  151,  161. 

Henry  V,  155. 

Edward  V,  170. 

the  Princes  in  the  Tower  (Richard  III), 
,7°»  *  73- 
Henry  VII,  184. 

Queen  Mary,  206. 

Queen  Elizabeth,  219. 

James  I  (“  Gunpow-der  Plot”),  233. 
James  I  (“  Main  Plot  ”  and  “  Bye  Plot  ”) 
(note),  238. 

Cromwell,  252,  258. 

Charles  II  (“  Rye-House  Plot”),  272. 
Charles  II  (so-called  “Popish  Plot”), 
270. 

James  II,  275,  282. 

William  and  Mary,  286,  293,  294. 

Anne  (“  Pretender  ”),  313. 

George  I  (“  Pretender”),  316. 

George  II  (“Pretender”),  323. 

English  rule  in  Ireland  (1798),  345,  346. 
George  IV,  356. 

English  rule  in  Ireland  by  Fenians 
(Victoria),  389. 


INDEX 


Ixxvii 


Plots  in  general,  see  names  of  Kings, 
Rebellion,  Wars. 

Poitiers,  battle  of,  see  Battles. 

Police,  the  new  (1829),  358. 

Political  “  bosses  ”  (note),  361. 
discontent,  355,  361. 

Political  parties,  rise  of  (Charles  II),  271. 
present  condition  of,  394. 
see  11  Abhorrers,”  “  Conservatives,” 
“  Country  Party,”  “  Liberals,”  “  Pe¬ 
titioners,”  Tories,  Whigs,  Jacobites, 
Non- Jurors. 

Political  reforms,  see  Reforms. 

see  Act  of  Settlement,  Ballot,  Bill  of 
Rights,  Chartists,  “  Local  Govern¬ 
ment  Act,”  Magna  Carta,  Petition 
of  Right,  Reform  Acts  of  1832,  1867, 
1884,  Suffrage. 

Poll  tax  first  levied  (1381),  135. 

Poor,  the,  135,  137,  197,  202,  355,  365,  405. 

Poor  Law  (1601,  1834),  see  Laws. 

“  Poor  Priests,”  Wycliffe’s  (1378),  138. 

Pope,  the,  sends  missionaries  to  England 
(597).  33- 

relations  of  clergy  to  the  (975-992),  42. 
the,  blesses  William  the  Conqueror’s 
invasion  of  England  (1066),  56. 
Gregory  VII  resolves  to  reform  the 
Church  (William  I),  63. 

William  I  withstands  the,  63,  64. 
William  I’s  three  rules  respecting  the, 
and  the  clergy,  64,  80. 

William  Rufus  and  the,  70. 

Henry  I  I’s  controversy  with  the,  72,  80. 
the,  proclaims  Becketasaint  (Henry  II), 
92. 

John’s  quarrel  with  the  (1208),  104. 
the,  places  England  under  an  interdict 
(1208),  104. 

the,  excommunicates  John  (1210),  104. 
the,  deposes  John,  104. 

John  finally  submits  to  the,  104. 
the,  opposes  Magna  Carta  (1215),  107. 
appeals  to  the,  are  forbidden  (1351,  1353), 
131,  144. 

grants  Henry  VIII  permission  to  marry 
Catharine  of  Aragon,  191. 
the,  makes  Henry  VIII  “Defender  of 
the  Faith,”  190. 

Cardinal  Wolsey  wishes  to  become,  192. 
Catharine  of  Aragon  appeals  to  the, 
192. 

the,  vs.  Act  of  Praemunire,  193. 
the,  threatens  to  excommunicate  Henry 
VIII,  194. 

Henry  VIII  declared  head  of  the  Eng¬ 
lish  Catholic  Church  (1534),  194. 


Pope,  England  made  independent  of  the 
(i534),  i94>  225. 

the,  excommunicates  Henry  VIII,  195. 
the,  deposes  Henry  VIII,  195. 

Henry  VIII  hangs  those  who  acknowl¬ 
edge  the,  200. 

Queen  Mary  acknowledges  the,  206. 
the,  declares  Queen  Elizabeth  illegiti¬ 
mate,  212. 

the,  disgusted  with  James  II,  283. 
Toleration  Act  denied  to  those  who 
acknowledge  the  (1689),  287. 
those  who  acknowledge  the,  are  ex¬ 
cluded  from  the  throne  (1689,  1701), 
288. 

see  Catholics,  Christianity,  Church, 
Courts,  Constitutions  of  Clarendon, 
Heresy,  Laws,  Missionaries,  Mon¬ 
asteries,  Monks,  Praemunire,  Pro-’ 
visors,  Religion,  Supremacy. 

Pope,  Alexander  (poet),  304. 

“  Popish  Plot,”  the  so-called,  see  Plot. 

Postage,  high  rates  of  (1837)  (note),  374. 

cheap,  established  (1839-1840),  374,  399. 
stamps  introduced  (1840),  374. 

“  Post  Nati”  (Scotch,  1603)  (note),  229. 

Post-Office  established  (James  I),  225. 
see  Postage. 

Potato,  introduced  by  Raleigh  (16th  cen- 
tury),  377. 

failure  of  crop  (1845),  377. 
failure  of  crop  (Irish  famine)  (1845- 
1846).  377- 

partial  failure  of  crop  (1876-1879),  388. 

“  Potwalloper”  (a  voter)  (1832),  360. 

Pound,  value  of  the  (Norman  Period),  79. 

Poynings’  Act  (Ireland),  see  Laws. 

Praemunire,  Act  of,  see  Laws. 

Prayer-Book,  first  Protestant  (1549),  203. 
Catholic,  restored  by  Queen  Mary, 
211. 

Protestant,  reinstated  (1559),  21 1. 
use  of,  made  compulsory  (1559,  1611, 
1662),  21 1,  232,  264. 

Charles  I  attempts  to  force,  on  the 
Scottish  Church  (1637),  243. 

Presbyterian  element  in  Parliament,  244. 

Presbyterianism  established  in  England 
(1647),  248-249. 
in  Scotland,  307. 

Presbyterians  turned  out  of  their  pulpits 
(1662),  265. 

Press,  Caxton  sets  up  the  first,  in  England 
(1477),  167,  176. 

used  for  political  purposes,  180,  247,  338. 

censorship  of  the,  289. 

freedom  of,  established  (1689),  289,  290. 


lxxviii  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Press,  freedom  of,  to  report  parliamentary 
debates  (1771),  338- 
power  of  the,  304,  305. 
see  Books,  Newspapers,  Printing. 

“  Pretender,”  the  Old  (1688,  1715),  283,  298, 
3i3- 

the  Young  (1745),  323. 

Pretenders,  Symnel  and  Warbeck  (Henry 
VII),  184. 

Pride,  Col.,  purges  Parliament  (1648),  249. 

Priestley,  Dr.,  discovers  oxygen  (1774)1  349- 

Prime  Minister,  the  first  (1721),  315. 

Robert  Walpole  as  (1721),  315,  320. 

the  power  of,  to-day,  368. 

see  Cabinet,  Constitution,  Government. 

Prince  Albert,  see  Albert. 

of  Wales,  the  first  (1284),  115. 

Printing  introduced  into  England  (1477),  167 
176,  180. 

see  Caxton,  Books,  Newspapers,  Press. 

Prison«reform,  see  Reforms. 

Proclamation  of  neutrality,  Victoria’s  (1861), 
382. 

Proclamations,  Henry  VI IPs,  given  force 
of  law,  195. 

Profanity,  common,  149. 

Elizabeth’s,  215. 

Progress  of  England  summarized,  391-406, 
410-420. 

Progresses,  royal,  216. 

Property,  real  estate,  entailed,  371. 

see  Land,  Laws,  Taxation,  Parliament. 

Protector,  Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester 
(1483),  169. 

Cromwell,  Oliver  (1653),  254. 

Cromwell,  Richard  (1658),  259. 

Protectorate,  England  under  a  (1653-1659), 
254-261. 

Protestant  religion  established  (1549)1  202, 
225. 

Protestantism  and  Catholicism  compared, 
204. 

and  Catholioism,  England  divided  be¬ 
tween,  200,  206,  209,  210,  213. 
plots  against,  219,  220. 
see  Christianity,  Church,  Laws,  Martyrs, 
Persecution,  Puritans,  Religion. 

Provisions  of  Oxford  (1258),  in;  Ap¬ 
pendix,  x. 

Provisors,  Statute  of,  see  Laws. 

Punishments,  number  of  capital  (George 
ni),  339. 

brutal  (George  III),  339. 
reform  in,  339. 

Puritans,  origin  of  (Elizabeth),  210,  225,307. 
in  Scotland  (and  see  Covenanters),  210, 
230,  243. 


Puritans,  Elizabeth  puts  a  number  to  death, 
212. 

Stubbs’  right  hand  cut  off,  214. 
the  Great  Petition  of  the  (1603),  230. 
the  “  Millenary  Petition”  of  (1603),  231. 
what  they  demanded,  231. 

Hampton  Court  Conference  (1604),  231. 
James  I  threatens  to  make  them  con¬ 
form,  232,  234. 

many  driven  out  of  the  Church,  232. 
many  emigrate,  235. 
vs.  Pilgrims,  235. 

emigrate  to  Massachusetts  (1630),  236. 
persecution  of,  by  Charles  I,  242. 
the  Declaration  of  Sunday  Sports  exas¬ 
perates  (1633),  242. 
the,  bum  the  Declaration  (1644),  242. 
Charles  I’s  difficulty  with  the  Scotch 
(1637),  243. 

the  “  Roundheads  ”  were  generally,  246. 
in  the  civil  war  (1642),  246. 
fanaticism  of  the  (Commonwealth),  256. 
reaction  against  (Charles  II),  262. 
Hampden  and  Milton,  noble  types  of, 
262. 

see  Covenant,  Covenanters,  Persecu¬ 
tion,  Presbyterians,  Religion. 
Purveyance,  right  of,  176,  306. 

Pym,  John,  240,  244,  245. 

Quakers  in  England,  256,  257. 

Quebec  taken  (1759),  326. 

Queen,  not  expedient  for  a,  to  reign  in  12th 
century,  73. 
see  Crown. 

Quotations  from  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  53. 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  238. 

Shakespeare,  1,  14 1.  15 1,  154,  156,  163, 
164,  166,  171,  193,  216. 

Railway,  the  first,  365. 

Railways,  365,  366,  398,  407. 

Rebellion  against  William  I  (1068),  60. 
of  the  barons  (William  Rufus),  69. 
of  the  barons  (Henry  I),  72. 
of  the  barons  (Henry  II),  93,  94. 
of  the  barons,  end  of  the  (1174),  94. 
civil  war  (Henry  II),  93. 
of  Henry  II’s  sons,  96. 
of  Simon  de  Montfort  (1264),  112. 
against  Edward  I,  116,  117. 
against  Edward  II,  123. 

Watt  Tyler’s  (1381),  135,  136. 
in  favor  of  Richard  II  (1399),  15  x. 
against  Henry  IV  (1399),  15 1. 
of  Owen  Glendower  (1399),  15 1. 
of  the  Percies  (i4°7)>  *5I>  I52- 


INDEX 


Ixxix 


Rebellion  of  the  Lollards  (1414),  » 55- 
Jack  Cade’s  (1450),  16 1. 
against  Richard  III  (1485),  171-173. 
of  Symnel  and  Warbeck  (Henry  VII), 
184. 

against  Henry  VIII  (1537),  196. 
against  Queen  Mary  (1554),  206. 
in  Ireland  (1595),  223. 
against  Charles  I  (civil  war),  245. 
against  the  Commonwealth  (1649-1651), 
252. 

against  James  II  (1685),  275. 
against  James  II  (1688),  282,  283. 
of  the  “  Old  Pretender  ”  (1715),  316,  317. 
of  the  “Young  Pretender”  (1745),  323. 
of  the  American  colonies  (1775),  335. 
of  Ireland  (1798),  344-347* 
of  Ireland  (1803),  346-347. 

Sepoy  in  India  (1857),  381. 
in  Egypt  (1881),  406. 
in  Egypt  (1883),  406. 

Boer,  so-called  (1899),  409-410. 
see  Civil  War,  Plots,  Wars. 

Reform,  army  (1871),  395-396. 

Catholic  Church  of  England,  41,  63,  no, 
120,  138,  144. 

Church  of  England,  Protestant,  194,  203, 

225,  287,  385. 

Church,  English,  in  Ireland  (1869),  386. 
civil-service  (1870),  395. 
courts  of  law,  73,  90,  94,  95,  142,  237, 
284,  396*  397- 

education,  hi,  146,  188,  189,  204,  218, 

226,  386,  397. 

elections,  113,  115,  143,  376,  396. 
feudal  system,  62,  66,  80,  273  ;  Appendix, 
vi. 

government,  66,  71,  105-107,  hi,  113, 
115,  117,  122,  131,  133,  142,  152,  176, 
216,  240,  241,  244,  273,  287,307,  314- 
316,  363,  368,  369,  384. 
insane,  treatment  of  the,  397. 
labor,  137,  147,  365,  400,  401,  410. 
land,  62,  1 19,  143,  387,  389. 
law,  339,  357,  397. 

liberty  of  the  press,  289,  290,  304,  305, 
339- 

local  government,  99,  119,  142,  358,  385, 
394-395* 

money,  87,  228,  405. 
municipal  (1835),  384. 
political,  237,  273,  287,  307,  357,  363,  371, 
372,  376,  384- 

poor,  management  of  the  (1601),  223. 
poor,  management  of  the  (1834),  392. 
poor,  encouragement  of  thrift  among 
the,  405. 


Reform,  prison,  339. 

religious,  41,  63,  no,  120,  138,  144,  194, 
203,  225,  231,  287,  328,  329,  357,  398. 
representation  in  Parliament,  113,  115, 
357>  359-3b3,  384,  393-394,  398* 
sanitary,  217,  399,  411. 
slavery  (villeinage),  137. 
slavery,  black  (1833),  364. 
slave  trade  (1807),  340. 
suffrage,  359-363,  37&,  3*4,  393- 
taxation,  107,  117,  171,  176,  216,  306, 
379* 

of  Victorian  period,  376,  378,  379,  384, 
385, 386, 387, 389, 392, 393, 394, 395, 
396,  397.  398,  399,  4°°,  4OI>  4°3,  4f>4, 

4IO-4I2,  4l6,  417. 

Reformation,  the  Protestant  in  England,  first 
steps  toward,  138,  139,  144,  194. 
established  by  Edward  VI,  202. 
opposed  by  Mary,  206. 
finally  established  by  Elizabeth,  21 1-2 13. 
see  Protestantism,  Religion. 

Regent,  Prince  of  Wales  acts  as  (181 1-1820), 
354- 

Regicide  judges  punished  (Charles  II),  264. 

Religion,  prehistoric  period,  3,  6,  9-10. 
of  the  Druids,  9-10. 

Anglo-Saxon  (449-1066),  51. 

Norman  period  (1066-1154),  80. 

Angevin  period  (1154-1399),  144. 
Lancastrian  and  Yorkist  period  (1399- 
1485),  176. 

Tudor  period  (1485-1603),  225. 

Stuart  period  (1603-1714),  307. 
Christianity  first  introduced  into  Britain 
(Roman  period),  21. 
coming  of  Augustine  (597),  33. 
conversion  of  Kent,  34. 
conversion  of  the  North,  34. 

Christianity  organized,  35. 
labors  of  the  monks,  35. 
influence  of  Christianity  on  society,  36. 
political  influence  of  Christianity  (664), 
36. 

the  Danes  destroy  the  monasteries  (871), 
38. 

Dunstan’s  reforms  (10th  century),  41. 
regular  and  secular  clergy,  41. 

Pope  Gregory’s  scheme  of  reform,  63. 
William  I  and  the  Pope,  63-64. 

William  Rufus  and  Anselm  (1093),  70. 
appointment  of  bishops  settled  (Henry 
I),  72. 

the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  (1164), 
90- 

excommunication  of  Henry  II,  91. 
murder  of  Becket  (1170),  92-93. 


lxxx 


LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Religion,  Henry  I  I’s  penance,  93-94. 
Richard  goes  to  the  Crusades,  98. 
purpose  and  results  of  the  Crusades, 
100-101. 

John  quarrels  with  the  Church  (1208), 
104. 

John  submits  to  the  Pope,  104. 
redresses  the  grievances  of  the  Church, 
106. 

the  Pope  and  the  barons,  107. 

Henry  III  builds  churches,  no. 
reformation  of  (1221),  no. 
the  Mendicant  Friars,  work  of,  no. 
legislation  respecting  the  Church,  119. 
Statute  of  Mortmain  (1279),  119. 
Wycliffe’s  reformation  (1378),  138. 
the  first  English  Bible  (1378),  138. 
the  work  of  the  “  Poor  Priests  ”  (1378), 
138. 

the  Lollards  (14th  century),  139. 
religious  plays,  149. 

Persecution  of  the  Lollards  (1401),  153. 
the  first  martyr  burned  (1401),  153. 
first  statute  against  heresy  (1401),  153. 
Henry  VIII  attacks  Luther,  190. 

Henry  VIII  receives  title  of  “  Defender 
of  the  Faith,”  190. 

Henry  VIII  is  declared  “Head  of  the 
Church”  of  England  (1531),  194. 
Henry  VIII  declares  England  inde¬ 
pendent  of  the  Pope  (1534),  194. 

Act  of  Supremacy  (1534),  194. 

Henry  VIII  executes  More  and  Fisher, 
x95* 

seizes  and  destroys  the  monasteries 
(i53h-i539)»  X95-I97* 
effect  of  the  destruction  of  the  mon¬ 
asteries,  197. 

the  “  Six  Articles”  (1539),  199. 
England’s  position  respecting  (1539),  200. 
Henry  VIII  executes  upholders  of  the 
Pope  as  traitors,  200. 

Henry  VIII  executes  Protestants  as 
heretics,  200. 

Edward  VI  establishes  Protestantism 
(1549),  202. 

Edward  VI  confiscates  Catholic  Church 
property,  203. 

effects  of  Catholicism  vs.  Protestantism, 
204. 

Mary  endeavors  to  restore  Catholicism, 
206-207. 

toleration  unknown  in  Mary’s  age,  207. 
religious  parties  in  Elizabeth’s  reign, 
209. 

Elizabeth  finally  establishes  Protestant¬ 
ism,  211-213. 


Religion,  the  Puritans,  209,  210. 

Act  of  Uniformity  (1559)  (see  Laws), 
211. 

High  Commission  Court  established 
(1583),  212. 

second  Act  of  Supremacy  (1559),  212. 
the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (1563),  212. 
Plots  against  Protestantism  (Elizabeth), 
219. 

Elizabeth  had  no  deep  convictions,  213. 
England  halting  between  two  opinions, 
213. 

the  Great  Puritan  Petition  (1603),  230. 
Hampton  Conference  (1604),  231. 

James  threatens  the  Puritans  (1604),  232. 
the  Catholics  and  the  Gunpowder  Plot 
(1605),  233. 

the  Puritan  and  the  Pilgrim  emigrations, 
234-236. 

Laud’s  persecution  of  the  Puritans,  242. 
Charles  I’s  “Declaration  of  Sunday 
Sports  ”  (1633),  242. 

Charles  I’s  difficulty  with  the  Scottish 
Church  (1637),  243. 

the  Commonwealth  forbids  the  use  of 
the  English  church  service,  251. 
fanatics  in  (Commonwealth),  252. 
Puritan  fanaticism  (Cromwell),  256. 
Cromwell’s  toleration,  256-257. 
reaction  from  Puritanism  (1660),  262. 
Puritanism  ridiculed,  262. 
religious  persecution  (Charles  II),  264. 
four  acts  against  Nonconformists  and 
Dissenters,  264-265. 

persecution  of  the  Covenanters  (Charles 
II),  265. 

Bunyan  imprisoned  (Charles  II),  266. 
braverv  of  Puritan  ministers  (Charles 
II),  267. 

the  so-called  “  Popish  Plot  ”  (Charles 
II),  270. 

Catholics  excluded  from  Parliament 
(1678),  271. 

James  II  attempts  to  restore  Catholicism 
(1685),  275. 

James  1 1,  his  Declaration  of  Indulgence 
(1687),  280. 

James  II  imprisons  the  Seven  Bishops, 
281. 

the  Toleration  Act  (1689),  287. 

Catholics  excluded  from  the  throne, 
(1689,  1701),  288. 

High  Church  and  Low  Church  (Anne), 
296. 

severe  acts  against  Dissenters  (Anne), 
302. 

rise  of  the  Methodists  (1739),  328. 


INDEX 


Ixxxi 


Religion,  the  Lord  George  Gordon  riots 
(1780),  337- 

repeal  of  the  Test  Act  (1828),  357. 
Catholic  Emancipation  (1829),  357. 
Sepoy  rebellion  (1857),  381. 
the  Jews  admitted  to  Parliament  (1858), 

384. 

abolition  of  compulsory  church  rates 
(1868),  386. 

disestablishment  of  the  English  Church 
in  Ireland  (1869),  386. 
religious  tests  abolished  in  the  univer¬ 
sities  (1871),  398. 

religious  tests  abolished  in  Parliament 

(1888),  398. 

see  Christianity,  Church,  Pope,  Refor¬ 
mation,  Puritans,  Dissenters,  Laws, 
Persecutions. 

Remonstrance,  Eliot’s  (1629),  241. 

the  Grand  (“  Long  Parliament”),  244. 
Republic,  England  becomes  a  (1649),  251. 
England  is  now  a,  under  name  of  a  mon¬ 
archy,  417  ;  Appendix,  xxviii. 
Review  of  English  history,  4 12-417. 
Revolution  of  1688,  benefits  of  the,  289. 

effect  of  the  American,  337. 

Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  352. 

Richard  I,  reign  of  (1189-1199),  97-102. 
goes  to  the  Crusades,  98-100. 
taken  prisoner,  100. 
ransomed,  100. 
sold  charters  to  towns,  98-99. 

Richard  II,  reign  of  (i377-*399)>  I34~MI- 
the  new  tax,  135. 

the  Wat  Tyler  rebellion,  135,  136. 
the  new  movement  in  literature,  137. 
Wycliffe  and  the  Lollards,  138,  139. 
the  King’s  misgovemment,  139-140. 
the  “  Merciless  Parliament,”  140. 
deposed  and  murdered,  140. 
reported  to  be  alive,  155. 
conspiracy  in  favor  of,  15 1. 

Richard  III,  reign  of  (1483-1485),  170-174. 
revolts  against,  171,  172. 

Henry  Tudor  claims  the  crown,  172. 
killed  at  Bosworth  Field,  173. 

Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  Protector 

(1483)1  169. 

murdered  the  Princes  in  the  Tower, 
170. 

Riots,  the  poll  tax  (1381),  135,  137. 

the  Lord  George  Gordon  (1780),  337. 
the  Reform  Bill  (1832),  362. 

Land,  in  Ireland  (1879),  388,  389. 

Roads  (Stuart  period),  310. 

Roads,  improvement  in  (1820-1830),  365. 
Roberts,  Lord,  409. 


“  Rocket,”  Stephenson’s  locomotive  (1830), 
365- 

Romans,  the,  invade  Britain  (55  b.c.-a.d.  43), 
17-19. 

conquer  Britain,  19-28. 
first  of  their  colonies  in  Britain,  19. 
persecute  Christians  in  Britain,  22. 
their  civilization  false,  24-28. 
forced  to  abandon  Britain  (410),  26. 
remains  of  their  work,  24,  27. 
government  and  taxation,  22-28. 
good  results  of  their  conquest  of  Britain, 
28. 

names  left  by,  in  Britain,  12. 

Romilly,  Sir  Samuel,  339. 

“  Root  and  Branch  Bill  ”  (Charles  I),  244. 
Rose,  the  Red  (Lancaster),  164. 

the  White  (York),  164. 

Roses,  the  Wars  of  the,  see  Wars. 

union  of  the  red  and  white,  179. 

“  Roundheads  ”  (civil  war,  17th  century), 
246;  (note),  271. 

Royal  Society  founded  (1662),  272. 

“  Rump  Parliament,”  see  Parliament. 

Runes,  Saxon,  52. 

Runnymede,  106. 

Rupert,  Prince,  246. 

Russell,  Admiral,  293. 

Lord,  executed,  272. 

Rye-House  Plot,  see  Plots. 

Sacheverell’s,  Dr.,  sermons  (1710),  301,  302. 
Safety  lamp  invented  (1815),  350. 

St.  Alban,  22. 

St.  Albans,  22,  36,  105. 

St.  Paul’s  Cathedral  rebuilt,  268. 

Sanctuary,  right  of,  52,  170. 

Savings-banks  established  (1799),  405. 
Sawtrey,  the  first  martyr  (1401),  153. 

Saxon  conquest,  what  it  did  for  England,  45. 
Saxon  period  (449-1066),  46-55. 

Saxon  pirates,  24. 

Saxons,  origin  of  the  name,  24. 
their  continental  homes,  30. 
they  enter  Britain  (477),  31. 
their  wars  with  the  Britons,  31-33. 
defeated  by  King  Arthur  (520),  32. 
in  Kent,  are  converted  to  Christianity, 
34- 

furnish  the  first  national  king  (828),  37. 
Schools,  see  Education. 

Science  (Tudor  period),  226. 

(Stuart  period),  309. 
progress  of  (Victorian  period),  391. 
Scotch,  the,  in  the  civil  war  (17th  century), 
248. 

give  up  Charles  I,  249. 


lxxxii  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Scotch  treat  with  Charles  I,  249. 

enter  England  in  behalf  of  Charles  I, 
249- 

proclaim  Charles  II  king  (1649),  253. 
Scotland,  early  history  of  (note),  116. 
conquest  of  (1290-1296),  116. 
regains  its  independence  (1314),  122,  123. 
war  with  England  (1513),  190. 
the  “  Post  Nati  ”  (note),  229. 
free  trade  denied  to  (1603)  (note),  229. 
partial  union  of,  with  England  (1603), 
229. 

Covenanters  persecuted  in  (1660),  265. 
final  union  of,  with  England  (1707),  303. 
the  “Old  Pretender  ”  in  (1715),  316. 
the  “Young  Pretender ”  in  (1745)*  323- 
see  Covenant,  Scotland,  James  I. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  351. 

Scroggs,  Chief- Justice,  270. 

Scutage,  or  shield-money,  levied  (1160),  88, 
144- 

Seal,  the  Great,  of  England,  251,  2S3. 

Sea  power  of  England,  rise  of  (16th  century), 
222. 

Search,  right  of,  abandoned  (19th  century), 
342- 

Sedan  chairs,  3 10. 

Self-denying  Ordinance  (1644,  1645),  247. 
Senlac,  battle  of,  see  Battles. 

Sepoy  rebellion,  see  Rebellion. 

Serfs  or  villeins,  see  Villeins. 

Seven  Bishops,  the,  vs.  James  II,  281. 
Seymour,  Jane,  Queen  of  Henry  VIII,  198. 
Shakespeare  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  216,  218. 
Shakespeare’s  historical  plays  (note),  162. 

works,  quotations  from,  see  Quotations. 
Shelley,  351. 

Sheridan,  351. 

Sheriff,  the,  50. 

Shield-money,  or  scutage,  88,  144. 

Shilling,  value  of  the  (1430)  (note),  161. 

“  Ship  money  ”  levied  (Charles  I),  242. 

Hampden  refuses  to  pay,  242. 

“  Short  Parliament,”  the,  see  Parliament. 
Sidney,  Algernon,  executed  (Charles  II), 
272. 

“  Six  Acts,”  the,  see  Laws. 

“  Six  Articles,”  the,  see  Laws. 

Slavery  abolished  in  the  West  Indies  (1833), 

364- 

Slaves  (Britons),  25. 

(Saxons),  33,  54. 

Saxon,  in  Rome,  33. 

Slave  trade  (16th  century),  227. 

(18th  century) » 303. 

«  abolition  of  the  (1807),  340. 

Small-pox,  inoculation  for  (1721),  319. 


Small-pox,  vaccination  for  (1796),  320. 

Smith,  Adam,  332. 

Smith,  Sydney,  and  the  Reform  Bill  (1832), 

362. 

Socialists  or  communists  (14th  century), 

1 35»  139- 

modern  demands  of,  411,  412. 

Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  see  Covenant. 
Songs  and  ballads,  Armada,  ihe,  221. 

Ballad  of  Agincourt,  157. 

“  Bonny  Dundee  ”  (note),  292. 

Canute’s  Monks  of  Ely,  43. 

Comishmen,  281. 

Dibdin’s  England,  11. 

Elliott’s  Corn-Law  Rhymes,  377. 

Fair  Rosamond  (note),  93. 

Jingo  Song  (note),  410. 

“  Knights  are  dust,”  129. 

“  Lights  of  London,”  350. 

“  Lilli  Burlero,”  280. 

“  Over  the  water  to  Charlie,”  323. 
press,  Caxton’s  (note),  168. 

Richard  I’s  (note),  100. 

“  Scots  wha  ha’e,”  1 17. 

Sheriff muir,  317. 

Vicar  of  Bray  (note),  213. 

“  Wearin’  o’  the  Green,”  345. 
see  Quotations,  Shakespeare. 

Spain,  the  Armada,  see  Battles. 

Catholics  of  England,  fight  against,  291. 
James  I  truckles  to,  233. 

War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  296. 
England  and  our  war  with  (note),  4x9. 
see  Philip  II,  Wars. 

Spanish  Succession,  War  of  the  (Anne), 
see  Wars. 

Speaker,  the,  held  in  his  chair  (Charles  I), 

241. 

Spectator ,  the,  published  (1711),  304. 
Speculation,  South  Sea  Bubble  (1720),  317. 

great  railway  (1845),  366. 

Spenser,  216,  218. 

“  Spoils  System,”  the,  overthrown  (1870),  | 

395- 

Sports,  Declaration  of  Sunday  (Charles  I), 

242. 

Stamp  Act,  see  Laws. 

tax  on  newspapers  repealed  (1855),  379. 
Staples,  or  markets,  148. 

Star-Chamber,  Court  of,  see  Courts. 

Steam  engine  invented  (1698),  309. 
improved  (1712),  309. 
patented  by  Watt  (1769),  347. 
results  of  use  of,  348. 
applied  to  railways,  see  Railways. 
Steamboats  introduced  (1812),  350. 

Steamship  lines  established  (1840),  350. 


INDEX 


lxxxiii 


Stephen,  reign  of  (1135-1154),  73-75. 

Matilda  claims  the  crown,  73. 
battle  of  the  Standard,  74. 
castles  built  by  barons,  74. 
civil  war,  74. 

Treaty  of  Wallingford,  75. 

Stephenson,  George,  365. 

“  Stone  of  Destiny  ”  captured,  117. 
Stonehenge,  10,  60. 

Strafford,  Earl  of,  241-244. 

Strikes,  132,  400. 
see  Labor. 

Stuart,  James,  the  “Old  Pretender”  (note), 
283,  305,  316. 

Charles,  the  “Young  Pretender,”  323. 
Stuart,  the  house  of,  229. 

Succession,  the  royal,  how  determined,  47, 
175,  198,  288. 

see  Revolution  of  1688,  Act  of  Settle¬ 
ment. 

Suez  Canal,  England  gets  control  of  the,  406. 
Suffrage,  property  qualification  imposed 
(1430),  160,  161,  174. 
large  cities  without  (George  IV),  355. 
inequalities  of  (1830),  359-362. 
extended  by  Reform  Act  (1832),  361-362. 
municipal  (1835),  384. 

Chartist  movement  (1848),  374-376. 
second  Reform  Act  (1867),  384. 
third  Reform  Act  (1884),  385. 

Local  Government  Act  (1894),  385,  394. 
woman  (1869-1894),  384,  395. 
and  secret  ballot,  396. 
and  Registration  Act,  396. 
general  view  of  (1832-1894),  393. 
see  Disfranchisement,  Laws,  Local  Gov¬ 
ernment,  Summary  of  Constitutional 
History  in  Appendix. 

Summary,  general,  of  English  history,  412- 
417. 

of  Constitutional  History,  Appendix,  i- 
xxviii. 

Suspending  power,  king’s  (note),  279. 

Sussex  settled  by  the  South  Saxons,  31. 
Sweyn,  the  Dane,  conquers  England,  43. 

his  reign,  43. 

Swift,  Dean,  304,  344. 

on  the  misery  of  Ireland,  344. 

Symnel  and  Warbeck,  the  pretenders  (Henry 
VII),  184. 

Tariff,  protective  (1841),  376,  400. 
abolished  (1849),  378,  400. 
imposed  by  British  colonies,  378,  401. 
revenue,  present,  378,  400. 

Taxes,  Roman,  25. 

Danegeld  (992),  42. 


Taxes,  how  levied  in  Saxon  period,  47. 
William  I  pays,  to  the  Pope,  63. 
Domesday  Book  and,  65. 
levied  by  robber  barons  (Stephen),  74. 
feudal,  79. 

feudal,  given  up  (1660),  273. 
clergy  exempt  from  certain  feudal  (note), 
79,  120. 

scutage,  or  shield,  88. 
paid  by  free  towns,  99. 

John  levies,  105. 

first,  on  personal  property  (1188)  (note), 
109. 

personal,  levied  by  Henry  III,  109. 
limited  by  Magna  Carta  (1215),  107, 
142. 

limited  by  confirmation  of  the  charters 
(1299)1  Il7‘ 

Provisions  of  Oxford  against  illegal 
(1258),  hi. 

nobles  refuse  to  pay,  to  the  Pope  (1258), 
112. 

the  first  poll,  levied  (1381),  135-137. 
riot  caused  by  poll-taxes  (1381),  13 5—  137- 
House  of  Commons  gets  control  of 
(1407),  152,  372. 

extorted  by  “benevolences,”'  169,  176, 
182. 

Richard  III  abolishes  “  benevolences,” 
171. 

Cade’s  rebellion  and  (1450),  161. 
Parliament  protests  against  illegal 
(1483),  171. 

Henry  VII’s  policy  respecting,  182. 
James  I  levies  illegal  duties,  233. 

James  I’s  methods  of  taxing  knights, 
237- 

limited  by  Petition  of  Right  (1628),  240. 
protest  of  Parliament  against  illegal 
(1629),  241. 

and  the  “Long  Parliament”  (1640), 
244- 

excise  duties  (civil-war  period),  247. 
Cromwell  levies,  on  Royalists,  256. 
limited  by  Bill  of  Rights  (1689),  288. 
House  of  Commons  limits,  to  certain 
ends  (1689),  289. 

levied  on  the  American  colonies  (George 
HI),  33°,  332,  333,  334- 
Sydney  Smith’s  humorous  enumeration 
of  (George  III),  344. 
the  Window  Tax  repealed  (1851),  379. 
House  Tax  first  levied  (1851),  379. 
stamp  tax  on  newspapers  repealed  (1855), 
379- 

present  system  of  revenue  duties,  378, 
400,  401. 


lxxxiv  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Taxes,  see  Benevolences,  Bill  of  Rights,  Ire¬ 
land,  Loans,  Magna  Carta,  Money, 
Ship  Money,  House  of  Commons, 
Reforms,  Parliament,  Petition  of 
Right,  Tariff ;  see,  also,  Constitu¬ 
tional  Summary  in  Appendix,  i- 
xxviii. 

Tea  introduced  into  England  (1660),  311. 

“  Party,”  the  Boston  (1773),  333- 
Telegraph,  the  Atlantic  cable  laid  (1858, 
1866),  379. 

lines  owned  by  English  Government, 
399- 

Temperance  movement  (18th  century),  329. 
Temperance,  see  Intemperance. 

Test  Act,  see  Laws. 

Theatre,  the,  in  early  times,  85,  226. 
“Thorough,”  Strafford’s  policy  of  (1629- 
1640),  241. 

Time,  New  Style,  vs.  Old,  in  reckoning 
(1752)  (note),  325. 

Tobacco  introduced  (16th  century),  230. 
Toleration,  religious,  formerly  unknown,  207, 
208,  21 1,  212. 

Bacon  and  Hooker  plead  for  (James  I), 

231- 

Cromwell’s,  256. 

pretended  acts  of,  270,  279,  280,  281. 
Toleration,  Act  of,  see  Laws, 
in  universities  (1871),  398. 
in  Parliament  (1888),  398. 
see  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  Laws, 
Religion. 

Tory  party,  rise  of  the  (Charles  II),  271. 
in  Anne’s  reign,  295,  301,  302. 
in  George  I’s  reign,  312,  316. 
changes  name  to  Conservative  party, 

364- 

recent  action  of,  371,  372. 

Tournaments,  85,  145. 

Tower  of  London,  William  I  builds  the,  61, 
S3- 

Town  charters,  see  Charters. 

Towns,  Anglo-Saxon,  50,  54. 
rise  of  free,  99. 

Trade,  54,  84,  147,  178,  223,  227,  337,  378, 
400. 

restrictions  of,  in  the  colonies,  see  Colo¬ 
nies. 

free  trade  (1849),  378,  400. 

England’s  decline  in,  410. 
see  Commerce,  Industry. 

Trades  unions  established,  400. 
Transubstantiation,  200. 

Transvaal,  the,  407-410. 

discovery  of  diamonds  in  the  (1867),  408. 
t  discovery  of  gold  in  the  (1884),  408. 


Transvaal,  war  with  the,  see  Wars. 

annexed  to  England  (1877),  408 ;  re^ 
annexed  (.1900),  410. 

Treason,  Henry  VIII’s  punishment  of,  200. 
Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  (1748),  323. 

of  Bretigny  [Bray-teen-yee']  (1360),  130. 

of  Dover  (1670,  1678),  269. 

of  Limerick  (1691),  291. 

of  London  (1884)  (note),  408. 

of  Pretoria  (1881)  (note),  408. 

of  Ryswick  (1697),  293. 

of  Sand  River  Convention  (1852),  408. 

of  Troyes  [Trwa]  (1420),  157. 

of  Utrecht  [U'trekt]  (1713),  302,  312. 

of  Wallingford  (1153),  75. 

of  Washington  (1871),  383. 

of  Wedmore  (878),  39-40. 

of  William  III,  297. 

with  France  and  Spain  (1763),  327. 

with  United  States  (1782,  1783),  337. 

see  Wars. 

Trelavvney,  Bishop  of  Bristol,  281. 

Trent  affair,  the  (1861),  382. 

Trial  by  battle,  77. 

Triennial  Act,  see  Laws. 

Tudor,  Henry,  claims  the  crown  (1485),  172. 
house  of  (1485-1603),  179. 

Henry,  marries  Elizabeth  of  York,  179. 
see  Henry  VII,  Henry  VIII,  Edward 
VI,  Mary,  Elizabeth. 

Turner,  352. 

Tyler,  Wat,  rebellion  of  (1381),  135-137. 

Uniformity  Acts,  see  Laws. 

Union  Jack,  flag  (170 7),  303. 

Union  of  England  and  Wales  (1536)  (note), 
1 16. 

Union  of  England  and  Scotland  (1603),  229. 
completed  (1707),  303. 

Union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  (1S00), 
346. 

Unitarians,  persecution  of,  287. 

not  included  in  the  Toleration  Act 
(1689),  287. 
burned  (1612),  308. 

“United  Irishmen,”  345. 

United  States  declares  itself  independent 

(1776).  336. 

England  recognizes  the  independence  of 
the  (1782),  337. 

War  of  1812  with  England,  see  Wars. 
Civil  War  in,  England’s  relation  to 
(1861),  381. 

exports  food  to  England,  401. 
war  with  Spain,  England’s  attitude 
(1898)  (note),  419. 

trade  of,  compared  with  England,  410. 


INDEX 


lxxxv 


United  States,  unity  of  interests  with  Eng¬ 
land,  417-420. 

Universities,  see  Educa.ion. 

“  Utopia,”  Sir  Thomas  More’s,  198,  217. 
Utrecht,  Peace  of,  see  Treaties. 

Vaccination  introduced  (1796),  320. 

“Vanity  Fair,”  Bunyati’s,  147. 

Venezuela  boundary  dispute,  404. 

Veto,  crown  has  lost  power  of  the,  369. 

“  Vicar  of  Bray  ”  (song)  (note),  213. 

Victoria,  reign  of  (1837-1901),  367-410. 
the  Queen’s  descent,  367. 
the  House  of  Commons  supreme,  368. 
limited  power  of  the  Queen,  368,  369. 
sketch  of  the  peerage,  369. 
income  of  the  Queen  and  royal  family 
(note),  373. 

the  Queen’s  marriage,  373. 
postal  reforms,  374. 
rise  of  the  Chartists,  374. 
the  Corn  Laws,  376. 
the  Irish  famine,  377. 
repeal  of  the  Com  Laws,  378. 
free  trade  inaugurated,  378. 
the  World’s  Fair,  379. 
repeal  of  the  Window  Tax  and  the  news¬ 
paper  tax,  379. 
the  Opium  War,  379. 
the  Crimean  War,  380. 
death  of  Prince  Albert,  381. 
the  American  Civil  War,  381,  382. 
seizure  of  Mason  and  Slidell,  382. 
the  Alabama ,  ravages  of,  383. 

England  pays  the  bill,  383. 
municipal  reform,  384. 
woman  suffrage,  384. 

Jews  admitted  to  Parliament,  3S4. 
the  second  Reform  Act,  384-385. 
the  third  Reform  Act,  385. 
abolition  of  compulsory  church  rates, 
386. 

disestablishment  of  the  English  Church 
in  Ireland,  386. 

the  Elementary  Education  Act,  386. 
abolition  of  religious  tests  in  the  univer¬ 
sities,  387. 

the  first  Irish  Land  Act,  387. 
the  Irish  Land  League,  388. 
the  second  Irish  Land  Act,  389. 
the  leading  names  in  science,  literature, 
and  art,  390-391. 
the  Queen’s  Jubilee,  391-392. 
the  Queen’s  “Diamond  Jubilee,”  392. 
review  of  sixty  years  of  English  history 
(1837-1897),  392-405. 
the  New  Poor  Law,  392, 


Victoria,  the  broadening  of  the  basis  for 
suffrage,  393~39S- 
the  Local  Government  Act,  394. 
overthrow  of  the  Spoils  System,  395. 
the  secret  ballot,  395. 
reform  in  the  army,  396. 
the  Registration  Act,  396. 
reforms  in  law  procedures,  396. 
reforms  in  the  administration  of  justice, 
396>  397- 

reforms  in  treatment  of  the  insane, 
397- 

progress  in  the  education  of  the  masses, 

397- 

religious  toleration  in  the  universities, 

398- 

abolition  of  religious  tests  in  Parliament, 
398- 

improvements  in  transportation  and 
communication,  398-399. 
introduction  of  petroleum,  399. 
introduction  of  photography,  399. 
introduction  of  ether,  399. 
progress  of  the  laboring  classes,  400. 
Trades  Unions  Acts,  400. 
free  trade,  400. 

Agricultural  Holdings  Act,  401. 
outlook  of  agriculture,  401. 

Consolidated  Death  Duties  Act,  402. 
the  colonial  expansion  of  England,  402. 
England’s  change  of  feeling  toward  her 
colonies,  403. 

England’s  new  policy  toward  Ireland, 
404. 

Gladstone’s  Home  Rule  Bill,  404. 

Balfour’s  Local  Government  Act,  404. 

arbitration  of  disputes,  404. 

death  of  Gladstone,  405. 

the  Cabot  Tower,  405. 

centennial  of  the  first  savings-bank,  405. 

England  in  Egypt,  406. 

progress  in  Africa,  407. 

affairs  in  South  Africa,  407. 

the  great  Boer  War,  409. 

death  of  the  Queen,  410. 

Villeins,  or  serfs,  62,  78,  80,  132,  135-137, 
142. 

rights  under  Magna  Carta,  142. 
gradual  emancipation  of  the,  136-137. 
not  fully  emancipated  until  1775  (note), 
137- 

Virginia  named,  218. 

first  permanent  colony  in  (1607),  234. 
emigration  of  Royalists  to,  during  the 
Commonwealth,  255. 

Vote,  many  common  people  deprived  of  the 
right  to  (1430),  160-161,  175. 


lxxxvi  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Vote,  right  to,  extended,  see  Suffrage,  Reform 
Acts  of  1832,  1867,  1884;  also  Local 
Government  Act,  Woman  Suffrage, 
and  Municipal  Suffrage. 

Wages,  effect  of  “  Black  Death  ”  on  (1349), 
132. 

laws  to  prevent  rise  of  (1349),  132. 
rate  of,  in  1381,  135. 
rate  of,  in  1811,  348. 
rate  of,  in  1834,  400. 

effect  of  agricultural  depression  on,  now, 
401-402. 

rise  in,  during  Victorian  period,  410. 
Wales,  conquest  of  (1282),  115. 
wars  with,  see  Wars, 
incorporated  with  England  (1536)  (note), 
1 16. 

the  first  Prince  of,  bom  (1284),  115. 
Walker,  the  Rev.  George,  at  Londonderry 
(1689),  291. 

Wallace,  William,  117. 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  314,  315,  320-322,  328. 
first  Prime  Minister  (1721),  315. 
how  he  governed,  320. 

Warbeck  and  Symnel,  the  pretenders  (Henrv 
VII),  184. 

Wars  (principal),  American  colonies  (1775- 
1782),  335-337- 

Austrian  Succession  (1741),  322. 

Boer  (1899-1901),  409-410. 

China  (1839),  379. 

Civil  (1138-1153),  74. 

“  (1173)1  93- 
“  (1215-1216),  108. 

“  (1264),  112-114. 

“  (1399-H03),  I5I-153- 
“  (1455-1485),  162-173. 

“  (1485-1490),  1S4. 

“  the  Great  (1642-1649),  245-250. 
Crimean  (1853),  380. 

Cromwell’s  (1649-1658),  252,  253,  258. 
Crusades  (1190),  100,  101. 

Dutch  (1653),  258. 

.  “  (1667),  268. 

Egypt  (1881-1883),  406. 

“  (1896-1899),  406-407. 

French  (1214-1216),  105,  108. 

“  (1338),  125-131- 

“  (1415),  156-158. 

“  (1422),  158. 

“  (1692-1697),  293. 

“  (1702),  296-300,  302. 

“  (*75i-i75 7),  324- 

“  (1756-1763),  325-327* 

(*793-*8o5),  340. 

“  (1815),  342- 


Wars,  “  Hundred  Years’ 9t  (1338),  125-131. 
India  (i75*"*757X  324- 
“  rebellion  (1857),  381. 

Ireland,  see  Ireland. 

“  Pretender'’  (1715),  316-317. 

(i745)>  323- 

Roses  (1455-1485),  162-173,  179,  180. 
Russia  (1853),  380. 

Scotland,  see  Scotland. 

Spain  (1588),  220-222. 

“  (1658),  258. 

“  “  Jenkins'  Ear”  (1739),  321. 

“Spanish  Succession”  (1702),  296-300, 
302. 

United  States  (1776-1782),  335~337- 

“  “  (1812-1815),  34*-342. 

“  “  (Civil  War)(i86i),  382-383. 

“  “  with  Spain  (1898)  (note), 

419- 

Wales  (1282),  1 15. 

Wars  (in  general),  effect  of  English  Channel 
on,  14. 

Caesar  invades  Britain,  55,  54  b.c.,  18. 
Romans  conquer  Britain  (43),  19. 
revolt  of  Boadicea(6i),  20. 

Anglo-Saxons  invade  Britain  (477),  31. 
siege  of  Anderida  (490),  31. 

King  Arthur  defeats  the  Saxons  (520), 
32. 

the  Danes  invade  England  (S71),  38. 
the  Danes  defeated  by  Alfred  (871), 
39- 

Treaty  of  Wedmore  (878),  40. 

Sweyn  conquers  England  (1013),  43. 
Harold’s  war  in  the  north  (1066),  57. 
William  the  Conqueror  invades  and  con¬ 
quers  England  (1066),  57-59. 
William  quells  rebellion  in  the  north 
(1068),  60. 

defeats  Hereward  (1091),  60. 

William’s  expedition  to  Normandy 
(1087),  67. 

William  Rufus  struggles  with  the 
barons  (1087-1100),  69. 

Henry  I’s  war  in  Normandy  (1106),  72. 
Stephen’s  war  with  the  Scotch  (1138), 
74- 

civil  war  of  Stephen's  reign  (1138-1153), 
74- 

Henry  I  I’s  war  with  France  (1160),  88. 
civil  war  of  Henry  I  I’s  reign  (1173),  93. 
Richard  I  goes  to  the  Crusades  (1190), 
98-100. 

John’s  war  in  Normandy  (1204),  103. 
John’s  war  with  France  (1214),  105. 
John’s  wfar  with  the  barons  and  with 
France  (1215-1216),  108. 


INDEX 


lxxxvii 


Wars  (in  general),  civil  war  of  Henry  Ill’s 
reign  (1264),  112-114. 

Prince  Edward  goes  to  the  Crusades 
(1270),  1 14. 

Edward  I  conquers  Wales  (1282),  115. 
Edward  I  conquers  Scotland  (1290-1296), 

116. 

Edward  I,  revolt  of  Wallace  (1303), 

117. 

Edward  II  defeated  by  the  Scotch  (1314), 
122. 

Edward  III,  beginning  of  the  Hundred 
Years’  War  with  France  (1338), 
125-131. 

civil  war  of  Henry  IV’s  reign  (1399- 
1403),  151-153. 

Henry  V’s  war  with  France  (1415),  156- 
158. 

Henry  Vi’s  war  with  France  (1422- 
i43i),  158-159- 

civil  war  —  Wars  of  the  Roses  (1455- 
1485),  162-173. 

Richard  III  and  Henry  Tudor,  battle  of 
Bosworth  Field  (14S5),  173. 
civil  war  of  Henry  VII’s  reign  (1485- 
1490),  184. 

Henry  VIII’s  war  with  the  Scotch 
_  (1513).  i9°- 

civil  war,  Henry  VI II’s  (1537),  196. 
Edward  Vi’s  war  with  the  Scotch  (1547), 
203. 

Mary’s  war  with  France  (1558),  20S. 
Elizabeth’s  war  with  Spain  (1588),  220- 
222. 

Elizabeth’s  war  in  Ireland,  223. 

James  I,  and  the  Thirty  Years’  War 
.  (1618),  233. 

Charles  I’s  war  with  Spain,  240. 

Charles  I’s  war  with  France,  240. 
the  great  civil  war,  Charles  I’s  reign 
(1642-1649),  245-250. 
civil  war,  the  Commonwealth  (1649- 
1651),  252-253. 

civil  war,  Cromwell  in  Ireland  (1649), 

252. 

civil  war,  Cromwell  in  Scotland  (1650), 

253. 

Cromwell’s,  with  the  Dutch  (1653), 
258. 

Cromwell’s,  with  Spain  (1658),  258. 
Charles  II  and  the  Dutch  (1667),  268. 
James  II  and  Monmouth’s  rebellion 
(1685),  275-276. 

William  III  enters  England,  283. 
William  III  and  James  II  (1689-1690), 
290-291. 

William  III,  Scottish  war  (1689),  292. 


Wars  (in  general),  William  III,  continental 
wars  with  France  (1692-1697),  293. 

Anne’s,  with  France,  the  “  Spanish  Suc¬ 
cession  ”  (1702),  296-300,  302. 

George  I,  with  the  “  Pretender  ”  (1715), 
316-317. 

George  II,  with  Spain,  the  “War  of  Jen¬ 
kins’  Ear”  (1739),  321. 

George  1 1,  of  the  “  Austrian  Succession  ” 
(1741),  322. 

George  II,  the  “  Pretender  ”  (1745),  323. 

George  II,  in  India  (1751-1757),  324. 

George  II,  with  France  for  the  posses¬ 
sion  of  America  (1756-1763),  325-327. 

George  III,  with  the  American  colonies 
(1775-1782),  335-337. 

George  III,  with  France  (1793-1805), 
340. 

George  III,  with  the  United  States 
(1812-1815),  341-342. 

George  III,  with  Napoleon  —  battle  of 
Waterloo  (1815),  342-343. 

George  III,  Irish  rebellion  (1798),  344- 
346. 

Victoria,  with  China,  the  Opium  War 
(1839),  379,  380. 

Victoria,  the  Crimean  War  (1853),  380. 

Victoria,  the  rebellion  in  India  (1857), 
381. 

Victoria,  the  American  Civil  War  (1861), 
382-383. 

Victoria,  war  in  Egypt  (1881,  1883),  406. 

Victoria,  war  in  Egypt  (1896-1899),  406- 
407. 

Victoria,  United  States,  war  with  .Spain 
(1898)  (note),  419. 

Victoria,  the  great  Boer  War  (1899),  409- 
410. 

Victoria,  see  Arbitration,  Battles,  Re¬ 
bellions,  Treaties,  and  Names  of 
Countries. 

Warwick,  Earl  of  (15th  century),  power  of 
the,  160. 

called  the  “king-maker,”  166. 

Washington’s  ancestors  emigrate  to  Virginia, 
255. 

attitude  in  the  Revolution,  336. 

Watling  Street  (Roman  road),  40. 

Watt’s  improved  steam  engine  (1769),  347. 

Wat  Tyler’s  rebellion,  see  Rebellion. 

“  Wearin’  o’  the  Green  ’’(song),  345. 

Wedmore,  Treaty  of,  see  Treaties. 

Wellington,  the  Duke  of,  341,  343,  362. 

Wentworth,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Strafford,  240, 
241,  244. 

Wesley,  John  and  Charles,  328,  320. 

Wessex,  32. 


lxxxviii  LEADING  FACTS  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY 


Westminster  Abbey,  begun  by  Edward  the 
Confessor  (1049-1065),  44,  83. 
Edward  the  Confessor’s  tomb  in,  44. 
Catholics  meet  there  annually,  44. 
William  the  Conqueror  crowned  in,  60. 
rebuilt  in  great  part  by  Henry  III  (13th 
century),  no. 

curse  of  the  charter  breakers  pronounced 
in,  1 12. 

arms  of  Simon  de  Montfort  in,  114. 
the  coronation  chair  in,  117. 
first  House  of  Commons  met  in,  113. 
House  of  Commons  sat  in,  for  more 
than  three  hundred  years,  113. 
Edward  I’s  tomb  in,  120. 

Queen  Eleanor’s  tomb  in,  120. 
burial  of  Richard  II  in,  155. 

Henry  V’s  tomb  in,  158. 

Caxton  sets  up  the  first  printing  press  in 
precincts  of  (1477),  167  • 
the  sanctuary  of,  170. 

Henry  VII’s  Chapel  in,  179,  186,  224. 
Henry  VII’s  tomb  in,  186. 

Henry  IV  dies  in,  154. 

Elizabeth’s  tomb  in,  224. 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots’  tomb  in,  224. 
Newton’s  tomb  in,  273. 

James  II  restores  Catholic  worship  in 
(1685),  275. 

Queen  Caroline  excluded  from  (George 
IV),  357- 

tombs  of  illustrious  men  of  science  in, 
390- 

Gladstone’s  tomb  in,  405. 

Beaconsfield’s  memorial  in,  405. 
of  peculiar  interest  to  Americans, 4 18,4 19. 
Westminster  Hall,  83,  338. 

Whalley,  Edmund  (regicide),  264. 

Whig  party,  rise  of  the  (Charles  II),  271. 
under  James  II,  282. 
under  Anne,  295,  301,  302,  307. 
under  George  I,  312,  314,  316,  320. 
under  George  III,  his  opposition  to  the, 
33o. 

under  George  IV,  354. 
under  William  IV,  363. 
take  the  name  of  Liberal  party  (1832), 
364 ;  (note),  394. 
see  Political  Parties. 

Whitby,  Council  of  (664),  36. 

Whitefield,  w’ork  of,  328. 

White  Horse  Hill  (Berkshire),  39. 
Wilberforce,  364. 

Wilkes,  John,  attacks  policy  of  George  III 
(1763).  338. 

vindicates  rights  of  parliamentary  elec¬ 
tors  (1768-1782),  Appendix,  xxvi. 


Wilkie,  352. 

Will  of  Henry  VIII  respecting  the  crown, 
198  (note),  205. 

William  of  Normandy  invades  England 
(1066),  56-57. 

fights  the  battle  of  Hastings  (1066),  58. 
grants  charter  to  London,  59. 
is  crowned  king  (1066),  59. 

William  I,  reign  of  (1066-1087),  59-68. 
quells  rebellion  in  the  north,  60. 
conquers  Hereward,  60. 
builds  the  Tower  of  London,  61. 
makes  large  grants  of  land,  61,  62. 

Law  of  Englishry,  63. 
and  the  Pope,  63,  64. 
seizes  the  New  Forest,  64. 
compiles  Domesday  Book,  65. 
holds  great  meeting  on  Salisbury  Plain, 
65,  66. 

death  and  burial,  67. 
results  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  67,  68. 
William  Rufus,  reign  of  (1087-1100),  68-73. 
his  struggle  with  the  barons,  69. 
methods  of  raising  money,  69. 
he  defrauds  the  Church,  69,  70. 
makes  Anselm  archbishop,  70. 
his  one  merit,  70. 
his  death,  70. 

William  of  Orange  invited  to  take  the  Eng¬ 
lish  crown  (1688),  282. 
lands  in  England  with  an  army,  283. 
flight  of  James  II,  283. 

William  and  Mary,  reign  of  (1689-1702). 
285-294. 

the  Declaration  of  Right,  285,  2S6. 
Jacobites  and  Non-Jurors,  286. 
the  Mutiny  Act  and  the  Toleration  Act, 
286,  287. 

the  Bill  of  Rights  and  Act  of  Settle¬ 
ment,  287,  288. 

Parliament  creates  the  sovereign,  288. 
benefits  of  the  Revolution  of  1688,  289. 
James  II  lands  in  Ireland,  290. 
siege  of  Londonderry,  290,  291. 
battle  of  the  Boyne,  291. 

Treaty  of  Limerick,  291. 
the  Jacobites  in  Scotland,  292. 
massacre  of  Glencoe,  292. 

Peace  of  Ryswick,  293. 
origin  of  the  National  Debt,  293. 

Bank  of  England  established,  293,  294. 
William’s  death,  295. 

William  IV,  reign  of  (1830-1837),  359-367* 
need  ofj parliamentary  reform,  359. 

“  rotten  boroughs,”  359-361. 

the  Reform  Bill,  361-363. 

passage  of  the  Bill  and  results,  363-364. 


INDEX 


lxxxix 


William  IV,  abolition  of  slavery,  364. 
fac'.ory  reform,  364-365. 
the  first  railway  opened,  365-366. 
invention  of  the  friction  match,  366. 
changes  his  ministers  at  pleasure,  368. 
Winchester,  public  school  of,  177. 

Window  Tax  (see  Taxes),  379. 

Windsor  Castle,  147,  177. 

Winthrop,  John,  emigrates  to  Massachu¬ 
setts  (1630),  255. 

Witan,  power  of  the,  47,  48;  Appendix 
(note),  ii. 

Witchcraft,  belief  in,  226. 

Witenagemot,  or  National  Council,  Appen¬ 
dix,  ii. 

Wolfe,  General,  takes  Quebec  (1759),  326. 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  192. 

Wool,  rise  of  manufacture  of  (1339),  I25*  >4^- 
Wool  growing  in  the  16th  century,  198. 

“  Woolsack,”  significance  of  the,  125. 
Woman  suffrage,  see  Suffrage. 

Women  and  children  employed  in  mines 
and  factories,  364,  365. 


Women  and  children,  law  to  protect,  365. 
Wordsworth,  351. 

World  as  known  in  1485,  185. 

World’s  Fair  (1851),  379. 

Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  rebuilds  St.  Paul’s, 
268,  293. 

his  tomb  in  St.  Paul’s,  268. 

Wycliffe,  writings  of  (1369-1377),  133,  144. 
translates  the  Bible  (1378),  138. 
his  “  Poor  Priests,”  138. 
and  the  Lollards,  139. 
his  remains  burned,  139. 
see  Lollards. 

Yeoman,  Latimer’s  description  of  a,  202. 
Yeomen  as  bowmen  at  Cr^cy,  128. 

Yeomen’s  lands  taken  (Edward  VI),  202. 
York,  house  of,  150,  166,  167. 

York  (White  Rose),  164. 

York  and  Lancaster  united,  179. 

York,  the  Roman  city  of,  23,  27. 

Yorkist  period  (1399-1485),  general  view  of 
the,  175-178. 


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